Like rest to a tired traveller, or a refreshing breeze after a long day under the sun, our proverbial 'pot of gold' publication will be savoured much more by all those who have been patiently waiting for a taste of this tome. Drought phenotyping in crops: from theory to practice is an epic volume whose path from concept to publication has at times taxed the patience of many, though the challenge was valiantly borne by all.

GCP is delighted to announce that this book is now fully accessible online. Visitors can thumb through the chapters one by one, or alternatively download the whole book. Part I is on methodology while Part II is on application covering the following 14 crops:

• Cereals: maize, millet, rice, sorghum, wheat 
• Legumes: beans, chickpeas, cowpeas, groundnuts, pigeonpeas 
• Clonal crops: bananas and plantains, cassava, sweet potatoes, GCP is extremely grateful to all the 89 authors who contributed to this volume, and to the editor.

To ensure the widest possible dissemination, the book has been published under the Creative Commons (CC) Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Mexico licence. Special thanks to Francesca Re Manning (then with the former CGIAR Central Advisory Services, Intellectual Property [CAS-IP]) and to Petr Kosina (then with CIMMYT) for their advice on CC publishing.

The book is also available on CD. If you wish to receive a CD of the book, please send an e-mail request, with your mailing address provided, to books@generationcp.org.

The first half of 2011 marked a season of community goings-on at GCP, as a series of comprehensive discussions on the formation, expansion and management of communities of practice (CoPs) were succeeded by the successful launch of several crop-specific CoPs. Read more

The Bean Coordinated Agricultural Project (BeanCAP) is pleased to announce the release - into the public domain - of the first instalment of resources to boost molecular breeding in common beans. BeanCAP is releasing to GCP information on more than 1,575 bean SNPs that will broaden the genetic tools available to developing-country bean breeders. 'SNPs' (pronounced 'snips') is a technical term, and the abbreviation is derived from 'single nucleotide polymorphism' - an advanced molecular-marker system widely used in genetic science, but SNPs have not been available in critical amounts to bean breeders until this landmark release. By reducing not only time but also cost, the use of SNPs for molecular breeding greatly increases the efficiency of crop breeding. This means it has high potential for improving food production in the tropics by developing new varieties better adapted to increasing environmental challenges.

The USA BeanCAP team of plant breeders and geneticists is led by Dr Phil McClean, BeanCAP Project Director, and Researcher at North Dakota State University. The SNP marker development and evaluation was conducted by Dr Perry Cregan, a BeanCAP team member, and legume Research Leader at the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) in Beltsville, Maryland. "These SNPs were evaluated on 384 bean cultivars, including cultivars of Mesoamerican and Andean origin," clarified Dr Cregan. "The SNPs donated to GCP fall into two groups: one selected to function well in the Mesoamerican and the other in Andean germplasm. Both sets will be suitable for applications in the breeding of tropical bean germplasm."

"This transfer is consistent with the USDA Feed the Future commitment to be actively engaged in global food security efforts," Dr McClean observed "It supports the research objective to seek gains in productivity through adoption of improved technologies that will promote development of more nutritious, environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient crops. Transfer of these molecular markers is consistent with a USDA strategy that envisions outcomes that will deliver scientific breakthroughs, and research to promote adoption of the best science through links with private-sector research partners and international agencies."

BeanCAP will partner with GCP to aid in the dissemination of the SNPs to developing-country researchers. "GCP works with a wide network of partners within and outside the CGIAR system, and this should ensure broad dissemination of these new bean resources to researchers across the world, particularly in the global South," said Dr Xavier Delannay, Leader of Integrated Crop Breeding at GCP. "The BeanCAP SNPs are a welcome and much-needed resource for bean molecular breeding since sufficient SNPs had not been previously available for this critical food crop."  A boon to bean breeding in the tropics

GCP is delighted to announce the release of UMUCASS33, a new disease-resistant high-yielding cassava variety, a cross-continental perfect pedigree of South American and African parentage. Nigeria's National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) at Umudike, one of GCP's partners, developed this variety in close collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). Nigeria is the world's leading producer and consumer of cassava.

The GCP-funded diversity studies, led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), revealed that the genetic base of cassava is very narrow, meaning that it can easily succumb to disease - as NRCRI's Dr Chiedozie Egesi explained – which meant that crossing South American and African varieties was essential to ensure success, as South American cassava cannot survive in Africa.

The end result of this happy marriage was higher yields and tolerance to acid soils conferred from the South American parentage, and resistance to cassava mosaic disease (CMD) from the African side of the family tree.

In a similar vein, the project's team leader at NCRCI, Dr Emmanuel Okogbenin also emphasised the importance of partnerships in the project, but those between research organisations, high-quality information, breeding schemes, and laboratory and fieldwork – the combination of which is crucial for successful breeding.

To get in-depth insight into this great example of a practical application of marker technology in cassava, please read the full story.

An announcement from Bioversity International:

"In response to increasing demand for capacity building on pre-breeding, the Global Partnership Initiative on Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) has just launched an e-learning course on Pre-breeding for effective use of plant genetic resources for plant breeders and germplasm curators and others engaged in germplasm management and/or crop improvement. It can also be used for teaching and learning about pre-breeding both in formal education and on-the-job training.

We believe that this practical, self-paced instructional tool would be of interest to your web site users, partners and collaborators. For more information about the course,  click here for the brochure. You can access the e-course or request a copy of the course on CD from the GIPB web site here."

 GCP is delighted to announce the 16 winners of its 3rd Genotyping Support Service (GSS) open call for proposals. This call was launched in October 2009 and closed in January 2010.

Further to our note of August 5th, 2010, we once more thank all the applicants for their interest and patience, whilst the GCP team was working to resolve a number of issues on the GSS strategy, and undergoing a leadership transition. We are now pleased to report that GCP's GSS strategy has been refined, and the transition in leadership has been completed.

For this 3rd call, 63 applications were received from 30 different developing countries for cassava, chickpeas, coconuts, cowpeas, groundnuts, maize, millet, Musa, Phaseolus, potatoes, rice, sorghum, sweet potato, wheat and yams.

A panel of GCP and external experts reviewed the proposals, of which 16 were selected as winners.

Please join us in congratulating these 16 finalists.

As advertised in GCP News issue 53, GCP is seeking a team of three IBP software engineers, and the application deadline has now been extended to 15th February 2011. Read more

GCP is pleased to announce the appointment of Delphine Fleury as the Analytical Pipeline Coordinator for GCP's Integrated Breeding Platform. She will perform this function halftime alongside her current engagement as Project Manager, drought genetics group, at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG).

Delphine holds a PhD in Plant Molecular Genetics from INP-ENSAT (France). At ACPFG, she also serves on the Scientific Advisory Group, and she previously led the wheat and barley genome analysis project. Delphine is a member of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium.

Prior to moving to ACPFG, Delphine worked on the DAGOLIGN European project at the Plant Systems Biology Department of the VIB-Ghent University in Belgium, before which she handled industrial liaison between two breeding companies and two public research institutes in France.

Delphine will be based halftime at GCP's headquarters in Mexico, and halftime in Australia.

Please join us in welcoming Delphine on board.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) is offering a training opportunity for scientists in agronomy and sustainable management of natural resources. The advanced course in conservation agriculture will focus on the sustainable and productive management of crops and resources.

• Date and venue: 23 May–24 June, 2011, CIMMYT HQ, Texcoco, Mexico
• Language: English
• Eligibility: minimum MSc, with experience of working in the public, private or non-governmental sectors, and with active relevant research involvement.
• Cost: USD 6,000, which covers training materials and selected publications, accommodation, meals, field trips, internet access, major medical insurance and airport transfers to and from Mexico City airport
• Application deadline: 31 March, 2011
• Maximum number of participants: 10

Participants are responsible for making their own international travel arrangements and incidental insurance coverage.

For further information and an application form, contact Petr Kosina

Plant breeding now: series of talks on advances in genomics and information technology

Scientists from the University of York, UK, have organised a series of talks and a discussion meeting on advances in DNA sequencing and computing, and how new technologies are being deployed in this field. This event will take place on Saturday, 19th February, 2011, as part of the Annual Meeting for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC, USA.

For further details, see the event flyer here, or access the University of York's website.