The Cold Spring Harbor Consortium, consisting of laboratories based in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, Washington University and Perkin-Elmer ABI Corporation, will continue to sequence the genome of Arabidopsis thalania with the goal of contributing to the completion of the entire sequence by the end of the year, 2000 AD. At a projected cost of $0.50 per base pair, 2.4 million bases will be sequenced in 1999, initially on chromosomes IV and V, as agreed by the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, the oversight group which coordinates this sequencing effort. If necessary, in order to reach the goal of 2.4 Mbs, other regions will be sequenced in accordance with decisions jointly reached by AGI and the CSH Consortium. Such joint decisions will determine the sequencing activities for this Consortium in the future years of this award. Additionally, all information relating to the genomic sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana, if not otherwise prohibited, will be made available to the community and other Arabidopsis sequencing groups in a timely fashion. An informatics person will be dedicated to the task of supplying the Arabidopsis community with such information in an interactive, user-friendly mode.
