The National Agricultural Genotyping Center (NAGC) began as a joint project of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). Under the arrangement, NCGA was providing manpower, leadership and capital to get the venture off the ground. LANL was providing expertise and patented technologies, specifically MOL-PCR (multiplex oligonucleotide ligation-polymerase
chain reaction) and MMS (Multiplex Mini-Sequencing). Although MMS is less robust than MOL-PCR, both technologies provide an assay platform to quickly detect a gene’s multiple unique sequences as expressed in SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). In addition, MOL-PCR in particular can detect numerous unique sequences in a single reaction (multiplex), over a relatively short period of time as compared to other technologies. The initial board of NAGC was comprised of agricultural producers who were on the NCGA’s Research & Business Development Action Team. During the interim board’s initial meetings through mid-2012, the team decided on several key policies that have guided NAGC since: NAGC would be established as a not-for-profit corporation that specifically targets solutions for agriculture. In addition, NAGC’s technological offerings would be “open platform,” available to all producers, with the individual outputs and data generated owned by the producer, and not controlled by large corporations or governmental agencies. Raising operating capital for a non-profit was time consuming, but the interim board responded by creating a “producer funded for the benefit of producers” campaign. By mid-2014, pledges and actual contributions from various producer groups made it clear that NAGC would raise the necessary capital, so the interim board sought to accelerate the start-up of NAGC by putting the location of the national laboratory out for bid. Led by the North Dakota Corn Growers, various agricultural interests in the state put together a package that totaled over $2-million. In a unanimous vote of the interim board, North Dakota won the bid over seven other states and Fargo ND was selected as the site of the NAGC’s national laboratory. In April 2015, NAGC was launched as a stand-alone, not-for-profit, 501(c)(5) corporation with new bylaws and a new board that is comprised of representatives from the producer organizations that contributed to the start-up of NAGC. Staffing for the national lab began in August 2015, equipment was ordered, and by late January 2016, build-out of the national lab was completed and NAGC was underway. The National Agricultural Genotyping Center is supported by the following member organizations: (hotlink each to their respective website)
• Illinois Corn Marketing Board (http://www.ilcorn.org/home)
• Indiana Corn Marketing Council (http://www.incorn.org/)
• Iowa Corn Promotion Board (https://www.iowacorn.org/)
• Kansas Corn Commission (http://kscorn.com/)
• Los Alamos National Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov/)
• Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council (http://www.mncorn.org/about/about-mcrpc/)
• National Corn Growers Association (http://www.ncga.com/home)
• Nebraska Corn Board (http://www.nebraskacorn.org/)
• North Dakota Corn Utilization Council (http://www.ndcorn.org/)
• North Dakota Farmers Union (http://www.ndfu.org/)
• Ohio Corn Marketing Program (http://www.ohiocornandwheat.org/)
• Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program (http://www.ohiocornandwheat.org/about-our-organization/ohio-small-grains-checkoff/)
Additional financial support has been given through grants from the following organizations:
• CHS Foundation (http://www.chsinc.com/stewardship/community-investment)
• North Dakota Department of Agriculture (https://www.nd.gov/ndda/)
• North Dakota Department of Commerce (APUC) (http://www.business.nd.gov/apuc/)
• North Dakota Soybean Council (http://ndsoybean.org/)
The National Agricultural Genotyping Center wishes to thank all of its members and other financial contributors for their support.
