Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center
Room 309 Botany & Zoology Bldg.
Ohio State University
1735 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
USA
phone: +6142929371
fax: +6142920603
email: arabidopsis+@osu.edu
AIMS WWW Server URL: http://genesys.cps.msu.edu:3333/
The seed stock collections are rapidly increasing, and many of the additions will be incorporated into the next catalog, which is expected to be distributed around Jan. 1, 1995. We have nearly finished growing the ecotype collection of Dr. A. R. Kranz, including the isolation of single-seed lines from each population. The donations resulting from the spring, 1994 stock donation campaign will be available, as will transposon lines and all 300 recombinant inbred lines from the Caroline Dean lab, by way of the Nottingham Centre. The latest batch of Kenneth Feldmann T-DNA pools, 1600 in total, have recently been released. In cooperation with NASC, we will be initiating a new seed donation drive soon. However, feel free to donate seeds at any time! Cooperation of seed donors has been great, but there are still many published stocks out there that we would be most pleased to have available for the benefit of everyone in the Arabidopsis community.
The biggest development on the DNA front is the rapid expansion of the EST holdings of the Center. Nearly 5000 clones from the MSU project and 1000 ESTs of the CNRS groups are currently held at ABRC. The demand for these clones is accelerating rapidly. Particularly, orders from researchers working with species completely outside the plant community as well as individuals focusing on other plants are increasing. The pursuit of new clone donations has paid off with the acquisition of a number of cloned genes, all of which will be included in the upcoming catalog. Two important research resources were recently donated to the Center. The first of these is the two-hybrid library provided by Dr. John Walker. Distribution of this stock as a kit was recently initiated, and demand has already surpassed the initial reserves of this item. Also, a P1 phage library has just been received from Mitsui Plant Biotechnology Research Institute and RITE. It will be some time before this stock will be available for distribution, as the preparation and storage will require substantial labor and equipment.
Many of you have been requesting EST clones from the ABRC DNA stock collections, and presumably using them for your studies. As the vast majority of these clones have not been checked by us at the Center, it is important that you take the time to sequence these clones prior to use, to confirm their identity. We would greatly appreciate being informed of your sequencing results, which can then be shared. Sequencing results can be sent to us electronically at: dna@genesys.cps.msu.edu
The stock centers are also interested to learn of research successes in which our stocks have been utilized, especially developments of a practical nature (like in this illustration?).
We are working with NASC to develop image files for all stocks. These will be available via the databases and gopher. The ABRC contributions to this information will be made available electronically as they are generated during next several weeks. We hope that these will be useful to researchers in the evaluation of stocks of the centers.
Starting in September 1994, the order histories of all seed and DNA stocks are being made available on the AIMS database. Specifically, orders to ABRC and NASC filled after Sept. 20, 1994 are being recorded on the system, as well as all EST orders. These can be queried by stock number in the AIMS ordering system, or searched by other criteria in the AIMS database. It is hoped that this service will foster cooperation among individuals with common interests.
We are also interested in feedback on results of experiments involving seed stocks. In particular the individual Feldmann lines, which were identified as having specific phenotypic characteristics, have been sent to many individuals. We would be very interested to learn which ones are actually tagged and which are not. This information can also be made available through the databases, the stock center catalogues and Weeds World. If feedback on all aspects of stock characteristics and utilization is forwarded to the centers, it will be of great benefit to Arabidopsis researchers.
The development of AIMS is entering the final stages. The new system went on-line in April, and the implementation of data input tools is nearly complete. With these tasks finished, it is expected that the database can be kept current for all data categories. All ESTs are now incorporated, with the current availability status included. The ABRC mailing list, residing on AIMS, now numbers over 2000 individuals and is updated weekly. The reference section contains over 4500 entries. With these tasks underway, we are now concentrating on making the interface more user friendly. The first step in this endeavor is the development of an ordering system that is completely graphical. Three new choices of access have been developed, with the most popular expected to be the Mosaic interface. To use this system, just connect to the AIMS main page (url http://genesys.cps.msu.edu:3333/), and then enter login and stock numbers in appropriate windows. A click of the mouse then places orders instantaneously with either ABRC or NASC. Direct links to NASC, AAtDB and NCBI home pages also are incorporated so that the main databases of Arabidopsis research are within a click of the AIMS home page. In the near future, similar Mosaic access to the entire database will be implemented so that all AIMS data can be accessed via the World Wide Web. It is anticipated that it will take some time to complete this project. When this is accomplished, an announcement will be made on the Arabidopsis newsgroup.
If you have any questions about ABRC services or stocks, feel free to contact us. We also stand ready to assist you in any way we can.
