FOREWORD

The rapid generation of new information on the rice genetics in recent years has resulted in the use of different symbols for the same genes and the same symbols for different genes. To promote cooperation and adoption of uniform gene symbols for rice in Japan, Dr. H. I. Oka organized an interim committee of Japanese scientists in 1979. The committee has met two or three times a year and promoted the adoption of rules of gene nomenclature suggested earlier. The gene symbols assigned since the publication of the IRC-recommended rules have been reviewed. In April 1981, the interim committee was named the Japanese Committee on Rice Gene Nomenclature and Linkage groups; it was supported by the Japanese Society of Breeding, and its meeting expenses were subsidized by the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. In April 1984, the committee was renamed the Japanese Rice Genetics Information Committee. Its members are T. Matsuo, Chairman; Y. Futsuhara, Secretary; active members N. Iwata, F. Kikuchi, T. Kinoshita, H. Morishima, M. Nakagahra, and K. Takeda; and coordinating members S. Iyama, T. Kawai, T. Nakajima, H. I. Oka, T. Omura, M. Takahashi, K. Toriyama, and H. Yamagata.

At a committee meeting held at Kurashiki in June 1982, it was suggested by Dr. Ryuhei Takahashi to publish a rice genetics newsletter, like that for barley, on an international basis. In parallel, Dr. G. S. Khush wrote to Dr. T. Kinoshita in September 1982 about the need for an international organization to bring about uniformity of gene symbolization in rice, and proposed that an international workshop on rice genetics be held and that a rice genetics newsletter be published annually. These proposals were discussed and acknowledged at the October meeting of the Japanese committee. In January 1983, Dr. M. Takahashi asked a number of rice geneticists abroad for their opinions on the desirability of publishing a rice genetics newsletter and holding a rice genetics symposium. The responses were favorable and the matter was further discussed between Drs. M. S. Swaminathan, G. S. Khush, and H. I. Oka during Dr. Oka's visit to IRRI in April 1983. They agreed to publish the first issue of the Rice Genetics Newsletter (RGN) in 1984 under the editorship of Drs. Oka and Khush and to hold the International Rice Genetics Symposium (IRGS) in May 1985. Drs. Y. Futsuhara and T. Kinoshita visited IRRI in October 1983 and reviewed the agreements for RGN and IRGS with Drs. Swaminathan and Khush.

The first issue of the RGN is now put in print. On behalf of the Japanese Rice Genetics Information Committee, I express our sincere thanks to Dr. Sho-ichiro Nakagawa, Director General, Tropical Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan, for his generous help in printing the first issue as "Genetic information in rice".

For the future management and publication of RGN, however, an international organization is needed. It is hoped that during the IRGS, world rice geneticists will establish a formal Rice Genet ics Cooperative to assume the responsibility for publishing RGN; monitoring rice gene symboliza tion; maintaining and exchanging gene stocks, and chromosomal mapping.

The publication of the first issue of RGN is a landmark in rice genetics, and I hope the RGN will be published annually. Each issue should report new findings on rice genes, linkage relations, and other aspects of rice genetics; and contain lists of available gene stocks, up-to-date linkage maps, and information on rice genetic resources. I hope the first issue of RGN will open the doors for cooperation among world rice geneticists.