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Plant Variety Protection Office 

STOP 0274 Room 2915 S 

1400 Independence Avenue, SW. 

Washington, D.C. 20250 

Plant Variety Protection Board Meeting Minutes 

Teleconference - December 14, 2021, 12 - 2:30 pm 

12:00 pm Introduction and Opening Remarks by Ruihong Guo, Ph.D., Science & Technology 

Program Deputy Administrator. Welcome to the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) 

board members and roll call. 

• Participants from USDA: Ruihong Guo, Jeff Haynes, Brian Ikenberry, Mara Sanders, 

Mark Hermeling, Kaylee Lewis, Erin Auger, and Jacquelyn Bryant 

• Participating PVP Board Members: Audrey Charles, Thomas Day, Shannon Douglass, 

John Duesing, Kevin Early, Joshua Freeman, Patrick Kole, Heidi Nebel, Paul Nelson, 

Patricia Olosky, Margaret Rekoske, Brent Robertson, and Albert Tsui 

• PVP Board Members unable to participate: Kelly Keithly 

• Participants from industry: Abigail Struxness, Fan-li Chou, Barry Nelson, Stevan 

Madjarac, and Stephen Smith 

12:15 pm Ethics Training by the USDA Office of Ethics, presentation by Erin Auger. The 

presentation provided the requirements of the Representative and Special 

Government Employee (SGE) members under the Federal Advisory Committee 

Act (FACA). Ethics training is a requirement for all board members. 

12:45 pm Introduction of program update by Jeff Haynes, Commissioner of the Plant Variety 

Protection Office (PVPO). The PVPO consists of ten staff members including 

seven examiners, two program analysts, and Commissioner. The newest addition 

to the PVPO is Susan Martin, Program Analyst. 

The responsibilities of the PVP board were explained. The PVP Act provides for a 

statutory board with the duties to advise the Secretary of Agriculture concerning 

the adoption of rules and regulations to facilitate the proper administration of the 

Act, provide advisory counsel to the Secretary on any appeals, and advise the 

Secretary on any other matters under the Regulations and Rules of Practice. 

The PVPO staff duties were provided including the crops covered by the 

examination staff. Mark Hermeling examines small grains and vegetables, James 

Mantooth examines corn and melons, Mara Sanders examines lettuce, potato and 

asexual crops, Kaylee Lewis examines peanut, rice and asexual crops, Brian 

Ikenberry examines soybean and vegetables, David Chalkley examines grasses 

and ornamentals, and Leigh Wiltison-Combs examines vegetables and cotton. 

Each examiner also covers other lower volume crops not mentioned. 

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The support staff including Gwen Adams and Susan Martin handle application 

receipt, payment processing, certificate issuance and correspondence. During the 

pandemic, program operations are continuing with little disruption. 

PVPO program accomplishments in FY 2021 included the examination of 450 

applications, issuance of 425 certificates of protection, completion of release 6 of 

the electronic Plant Variety Protection (ePVP) system, the addition of 20 new 

Exhibit C (Objective Description of Variety) forms, and updates to the program 

financial tracking system to better track payments and expenses. 

PVPO program initiatives in FY 2022 include the issuance of at least 400 

certificates, the examination of 400 or more applications, cross training of the 

examination staff on the three propagation method crops, arranging crop tours with 

customers for additional learning by the staff. 

Germplasm deposit repositories are still being investigated by the PVPO and will 

be confirmed after additional meetings are held. Once the crops that can be 

managed is confirmed the PVPO will implement agreements to accept asexually 

reproduced and hemp variety germplasm deposits. Information will be provided to 

customers and posted on the PVPO website in the fall of 2022. Currently seed 

hemp varieties can be deposited at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources 

Preservation (NLGRP) in Fort Collins, Colorado. 

PVPO is working on a plan to conduct pilot Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability 

(DUS) examinations in the US with several customers. The pilot project will focus 

on asexually reproduced crops such as berries and ornamental varieties first to 

work our logistics. The goal of the project is to provide a voluntary program 

requested by customers to produce DUS reports that are accepted by other 

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 

authorities. 

Essentially Derived Variety (EDV) explanatory notes have been updated and are 

available for viewing form the UPOV website. John Duesing provided an overview 

and update on the EDV explanatory notes. Draft three of the explanatory notes 

have been reviewed and circulated to UPOV members for comment. If there are 

no comments, then the explanatory notes should be adopted by UPOV in February 

or March of 2022. 

UPOV created a new working group on harvested material and unauthorized use 

of propagating material (WG-HRV) and they issued a call for a new working group 

on smallholder farmers in relation to private and non-commercial use (WG-SHF). 

More information can be found on the UPOV website. PVPO participates in 

meetings on these topics with the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), US 

State Department, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the US Trade 

Representative (USTR). PTO will be the lead agency on these topics. 

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PVPO received more than 30 applications for asexually reproduced varieties 

including applications for almond, anthurium, apple, blackberry, calibrachoa, 

camellia, cherry, fuchsia, grapevine, hemp, magnolia, nightshade, orange, orchid, 

phlox, and raspberry. The program received many inquires so the forms that were 

produced were for those species, which equal 69 new forms created so far. 

DUS reports are accepted by PVPO from other UPOV authorities for all asexually 

reproduced crops and all need seed crops. The program has successfully 

accepted DUS reports for anthurium, fuchsia, and several seed varieties. The 

DUS report replaces the Exhibit C form. The applicant must also submit Exhibits, 

A, B, and E unless that information is included in the DUS report. Once a DUS 

report is received it is checked for completeness and then the standard procedure 

for examination is conducted for newness and DUS by the examination staff. If the 

application variety meets the examination criteria the variety is recommended for 

protection. 

1:15 pm Presentation on the Soybean Molecular Marker Method and History by Barry 

Nelson with Corteva Agriscience. The Soybean Molecular Method (SMM) has 

been working on by the PVP Board Molecular Marker Subcommittee (SMM) and 

American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Molecular Marker Working Group 

(MMWG) for more than seven years. 

The PVP Board SMM and ASTA MMWG combined efforts and performed 

extensive analysis and achieved a publication in the Crop Science Journal of the 

method that was published online on August 6, 2020. The SMM is a Singlenucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) analytical method that can be used to show the 

genetic similarity between two soybean varieties. The similarity results are 

recorded as a SNP genetic similarity percentage. 

The MMWG team determined that the soybean similarity threshold supporting 

distinctness was 96%. A Subject Variety (SV) and Most Similar Variety (MSV) can 

be compared by the SMM as described in the published method. If the SV has a 

similarity of 95% or less, then it can be considered distinct while a genetic similarity 

of 96% or higher may be indicate that the two varieties are substantially similar. 

It was important to note that this method can be used to support distinctness 

claims based on morphology and some varieties that have a similarity percentage 

of 96% or higher can still be determined to be distinct from the MSV using 

morphological characteristics. Soybean breeders have validated the threshold for 

use with current elite soybean varieties and agree with the 96% threshold for 

distinctness. This concluded the soybean method development by the MMWG. 

2:00 pm Presentation on Soybean Method Implementation by Jeff Haynes with PVPO. 

Around 2010, PVPO had interest in using molecular data to distinguish corn and 

soybean varieties. As examinations continued in subsequent years the focus 

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shifted from corn to soybean because soybean varieties were considered more 

difficult to distinguish due to the limited number of characteristics. At this same 

time the ASTA MMWG and PVP Board MMS merged to develop a method that 

could be used as a new type of characteristic to help with future distinctness 

determinations. While the MMWG was working on developing the method, PVPO 

continued to examination soybeans by implementing several improvements. 

The improvements included revisions to the Exhibit C form to include additional 

characteristics, requests to customers to thoroughly complete the Exhibit C form, 

and the addition of additional characteristics from the UPOV Test Guidelines. As a 

result of these changes, there have been enough characteristics to determine 

distinctness and complete soybean examinations without much difficulty. 

PVPO will coordinate more meetings with other UPOV authorities to pursue 

acceptance of the method for establishing distinctness. Moving forward PVPO will 

continue to examine soybean applications using current procedures but will look 

for ideal cases to test the SMM in real-time. 

When a case is identified PVPO will contact the applicant and work closely with 

them to work out the procedure for testing the SV and MSV, and how they can 

provide the results to the office. Progress of the SMM implementation will be 

presented at a future UPOV technical meeting. PVPO appreciates the lengthy 

efforts of the MMWG and now has a new tool to aid with the examination of 

soybean applications. 

2:15 pm Discussion and comments. PVPO appreciated the presentations and questions 

from the PVP Board members and guests. Comments were received from PVP 

Board members regarding whether the PVPO needed additional assistance with 

the implementation of the SMM. PVPO responded that it had enough 

documentation and information to implement the SMM as a confirmatory tool for 

soybean examinations. 

A PVP Board member asked if the PVPO could provide a presentation at a UPOV 

technical meeting in 2022 and PVPO was agreeable. As stated above, the 

progress of the SMM implementation will be presented at a future UPOV technical 

meeting as soon a pilot cases are examined, and the procedures refined. 

Another question was raised regarding the cost of the on-site DUS examination 

service. PVPO responded that there will be costs associated with the voluntary 

service, but it will need to be determined as the procedures are worked out in the 

pilot programs. PVPO will continue learning and will work with other UPOV 

authorities to refine procedures and calculate realistic costs. 

A PVP Board member asked how many asexually reproduced varieties had been 

examined and issued a certificate of protection. PVPO responded that 

approximately 15 of the 30 applications received were recommended and 

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approved for a certificate of protection, which would be issued in early 2022. In 

addition, a question was asked about a possible extension of the asexually 

reproduced variety deposit requirement to be implemented on January 6, 2023. 

PVPO responded that an extension will not be issued but there is a possibility that 

some species will continue to be granted germplasm deposit waivers due to the 

infeasibility of long-term storage for some of the crop kinds. More information will 

be provided on the requirements in mid-2022 to customers, stakeholders and 

posted on the PVPO website. 

2:25 pm Meeting Summary. The program thanks the PVP Board for their service to the 

PVPO, the Secretary and the public. The thoughtful and useful presentations and 

feedback will be used to refine and improve operations. PVPO will continue 

working with the current PVP Board members through collaborative interaction and 

the planning of another meeting in 2022. 

2:30 pm Adjourn 

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