Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center and AIMS News


Randy Scholl, Keith Davis and Sakti Pramanik
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://aims.cps.msu.edu/aims/



The ABRC is pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Estelle and Dr. David Meinke have been added to the Advisory Committee of the Center. They replaced Dr. Fred Ausubel and Dr. Elliot Meyerowitz on Jan. 1, 1996. New Advisory Committee appointments will be for three-year terms, and one or two members will be changed each year. It is felt that this creates maximum community involvement in the Center's operation. We are greatly indebted to Dr. Ausubel and Dr. Meyerowitz for their excellent service to the Center as Advisory Committee members from the beginning of our operations. We are likewise grateful that Dr. Estelle and Dr. Meinke have agreed to serve.

Work on the 1996 ABRC Seed and DNA Stock List is currently in progress. The new volume will be in the form of a supplement to the 1995 version. It is felt that the new mutant and clone additions can be summarized in a separate volume, and the 1995 edition will be relevant forthe remainder of stocks. Nevertheless, there are many new seed stocks,clones and libraries being added to the collection. A complete electronic version of the catalog will be placed on the AIMS Web server (http://aims.cps.msu.edu/aims/) for anyone wishing to print or consultcopies of integrated catalog chapters.

Most of the new stocks that will be made available have been listed in the last issue of Weeds World. The stock centers are always pleased to receive new stocks. The ABRC is especially interested in receiving new mutants, ecotypes, clones and libraries as well as T-DNA transformed lines and transposon-transposed lines. A number of new ventures are planned in the future by ABRC. These include potential acquisitions of isolated DNA from large-insert libraries and T-DNA lines for use in PCR-based exploration. When important new stocks are made available, notice will be given on the electronic newsgroup and Weeds World.

The AIMS database has recently been transferred to a new server, which is much faster than the original computer and should be capable of handling the increasing usage. The previous server (a Sparc II) had been overloaded for some time with the current data and user demand. It is hoped that the new server will be able to cope with the necessary tasks for some time to come. You may have noticed that the home page of the AIMS Web server has been moved (new address, http://aims.cps.msu.edu/aims/): This was instituted in connection with the server transfer. The database can still be located from the original home page. However, please add the new location to your bookmarks, as the "genesys" address will eventually be phased out completely.

Several new features have been added to AIMS. One of these, the on-line catalog, is potentially very useful. The sections of this catalog are each organized into single Web pages. This allows searching of each section using the search function of the users' Web browsers, as well as selective or complete printing of the catalog. Two other important items have been added to the AIMS Web: 1) The EST anchoring data of the Bertrand Lemieux laboratory, both as a text page and incorporated into the stock descriptions of AIMS, and 2) a Refer-export file from EndNote of Arabidopsis references published since the beginning of 1995. This file can be ftped and loaded directly into EndNote on your computer. AIMS is also currently up-to-date for all ESTs, and direct linkages to the sequence databases exist for these clones.

All questions about ABRC or AIMS may be addressed to Dr. Randy Scholl (scholl.1@osu.edu), Dr. Keith Davis (davis.68@osu.edu), Dr. Sakti Pramanik (pramanik@cps.msu.edu) or Mr. Nasser Assem, the AIMS Manager (aims-manager@cps.msu.edu).