9600964 Scholl This award to Ohio State University renews support for the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC), a collection of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds and DNAs. The collection includes seed of a large number of known mutants, large sets of seed obtained from plants mutagenized through several means, and a similarly large variety of isolated individual genes, genomic libraries and cloned DNA copies of messenger RNAs. For a modest fee, the ABRC provides samples of its collection on request, primarily to researchers in the US, but also to investigators in foreign countries. Through a subcontract to Michigan State University, the award includes support for further development of the Arabidopsis Information Management System (AIMS), an online database and forms-based ordering system that facilitates access to the ABRC. In recent years, the ABRC has provided over 35,000 seed samples, and 8000 samples of DNA on an annual basis. Because of its role as a central repository, the ABRC plays a crucial role in the coordinated international effort to sequence the Arabidopsis genome.
