Abstracts: 



Resource Development 



Optimizing Procedures for a Human Genome Repository 



William C. Nierman and Donna R. Maglott 



American Type Culture Collection. Rockville. MD 20852 

 (310)231-5559 



The cloned genes and DNA fragments identified during the human genome project 

 should be stored in a repository and made available to the research community. Such a 

 repository would also establish a set of reference clones to facilitate comparison of data 

 generated from different laboratories. 



Repositories of well-characterized cloned human DNA fragments currently exist, but at 

 a much smaller scale than necessary for the human genome project. Procedures used in 

 these repositories cannot be expanded without modification. Methods must be improved 

 to automate DNA preparation: clone verification; data maintenance and analysis: and 

 sample storage, recovery, and distribution. Procedures reducing the amount of sample 

 needed for verification and storage must be perfected. The objective of this project is to 

 establish a pilot repository to evaluate such protocols and instrumentation. Initial 

 emphasis will be placed on automating clone verification by analyzing restriction 

 fragments on a DNA sequencing machine and comparing fragment sizes to those 

 already obtained by depositors. Methods will also be explored to use robotics for DNA 

 preparation: to manage information effectively; to verify clones for which there is no 

 restriction data: and to improve methods of sample storage, retrieval, and distribution. 

 These procedures will be tested through the development and operation of a pilot 

 repository using the contigs of lambda clones identified by Maynard Olson's laboratory 

 for the 5. cerevisiae genome, and chromosome- 1 6- and chromosome- 19-specific contigs 

 identified by the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. 



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