The following text was published on Announcements page of the Fungal Genetics Stock Center:

Formation of the Aspergillus Genomics Research Policy Committee (Aspergillus-GRPC)

The provisional Aspergillus GRPC was formed at the Aspergillus workshop (3/23/03) at the 22nd Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, CA.

Approximately 50 research scientists attended the session organized by Professors Steve Osmani and Ralph Dean. After hearing updates on the sequencing projects in several Aspergillus species we had an open discussion moderated by Ralph Dean. The first priorities identified by those in attendance were:

(1) To finish sequencing and annotation of the A. fumigatus, A nidulans and A. oryzae sequencing projects,
(2) To articulate the major research enabling goals for the various Aspergillus research communities and groups, primarily by having regular meetings to coordinate community efforts.

Other topics discussed included writing grants to fund functional genomics approaches (microarrays, knockout collections, protein analysis, etc).

A major theme of the discussion was the advantage of including several Aspergillus species in annotation and later analysis. Using several species will allow for a better final genome sequence and should also allow important evolutionary and pathogenicity questions to be addressed. It was agreed that the inclusion of multiple Aspergillus species is a huge advantage (the only other fungal genus with this merit is Saccharomyces) that can be leveraged for multiple research objectives.

A provisional Aspergillus-GRPC was suggested and agreed. Representatives from all species covered in the session were nominated. It was also suggested that eventually separate working groups might be formed for each Aspergillus species. A one day meeting at the 2004 European Fungal Genetics Conference in Copenhagen was proposed. A full vote for membership of the Committee would be held at this meeting.

The interim members of the Aspergillus-GRPC are David Denning (A. fumigatus) (Chairman), Steve Osmani (A. nidulans), Michelle Momany (A. nidulans), Jiujiang Yu (A. flavus), Masayuki Machida (A. oryzae), Marco Van Den Berg (A. niger) and Kees van del Hondel (A. niger).

Communications regarding the committee would be via the Aspergillus website.