A. Report of the Coordinating Committee of the Rice Genetics Cooperative

A meeting of the Coordinating Committee of RGC was held during the 6th International SABRAO Congress at Tsukuba City, Japan on August 25, 1989. Members present were: Professor T. Matsuo, Drs. H.I. Oka, G.S. Khush, M. Takahashi, Y. Futsuhara, T. Kinoshita, M.H. Heu, H.K. Wu and Min Shao-Kai. G.S. Khush reviewed the arrangements for the Second International Rice Genetics Symposium to be held at IRRI from May 14-18, 1990. An international organizing committee set up in October 1987 has been handling the arrangements for the symposium. First circular regarding the symposium was mailed in mid 1988 and an announcement regarding the symposium was published in Rice Genetics Newsletter, volume 5. Instructions for preparing the abstracts were mailed in May 1989 to those who responded to the first circular. Up to the end of October 1989, 207 abstracts were received. Out of these, about 16 did not deal with rice genetics and these were returned to the authors. Remaining abstracts were classified into oral and poster papers. Authors of accepted papers were informed and instructions for preparing the papers and posters were mailed in November 1989. The second circular regarding the symposium was mailed in December 1989.

The program of the Symposium will consist of 12 oral sessions and four poster sessions. Adhoc committees will meet in the evenings to discuss problems of gene nomenclature, chromosome numbering system and maintenance of genetic stocks of rice. New office bearers of RGC will be elected. Proceedings of the symposium will be published in the book form by IRRI.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the Symposium. If you need a letter of invitation to facilitate your travel, please write to Dr. G.S. Khush.

                                   M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman
                                   T. Matsuo, Co-Chairman