Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center

Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center

The Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center supports plant science by maintaining and distributing genetic, genomic, and biological materials for the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Founded within an academic setting, the center interfaces with institutes such as The Ohio State University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, John Innes Centre, Max Planck Society and international consortia like the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It serves researchers who work at institutions including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Davis, Stanford University, and University of Cambridge.

History

The center was created in response to initiatives led by figures and projects from the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, the Plant Genome Research Program, and collaborations among laboratories such as those of George Benfey, Chris Somerville, E. M. Meyerowitz, Detlef Weigel, and Maarten Koornneef. Its establishment paralleled milestones like the completion of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome and coordinated efforts exemplified by the 1001 Genomes Project and the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Network. Early partnerships involved organizations like National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, European Research Council, National Institutes of Health, and infrastructure groups including the Addgene plasmid repository and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Over time, the center expanded alongside major programs at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Salk Institute, and Rothamsted Research.

Collections and Materials

The repository curates extensive collections including mutant lines from screens inspired by work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and knockout libraries developed in collaboration with teams at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), and Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. Holdings encompass seed stocks, T-DNA insertion lines associated with studies by Julian Schroeder, David Somerville, and Sarah Hake; overexpression collections akin to projects from University of Tokyo laboratories; and curated ecotype panels reflecting sampling efforts comparable to those coordinated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Smithsonian Institution. The center preserves DNA clones, cDNA collections, plasmids resembling contributions to repositories like Addgene and European Nucleotide Archive, and phenotype datasets compatible with standards used by Gene Ontology Consortium, UniProt, and TAIR (The Arabidopsis Information Resource).

Services and Distribution

ABRC provides distribution services modeled after community repositories such as Beckman Center for Recombinant DNA and American Type Culture Collection. It processes requests from principal investigators at universities including University of Oxford, Yale University, Princeton University, and research centers like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The center offers accessioning, seed amplification influenced by protocols from John Innes Centre seed banks, long-term cold storage practices similar to Svalbard Global Seed Vault standards, and legal compliance with agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. Training and outreach have paralleled workshops held at venues such as Gordon Research Conferences and meetings like the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference.

Research and Community Impact

Materials supplied by the repository have enabled studies published in journals like Nature, Science, Plant Cell, PNAS, and Cell. Research facilitated spans developmental genetics connected to work by E. M. Meyerowitz and Enrico Coen, stress physiology linked to studies by Jeffrey Dangl and Detlef Weigel, and systems biology projects associated with groups at European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Tokyo Institute of Technology. The center’s resources underpin teaching efforts at institutions such as Cornell University, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and contribute to biotechnology initiatives at companies like Syngenta and Bayer AG. Community impact includes enabling data integration with platforms like GenBank, ArrayExpress, GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus), and collaborative networks such as the International Plant Phenotyping Network.

Organization and Funding

The repository operates within an academic administrative structure affiliated with The Ohio State University and maintains governance interactions with advisory boards containing members from National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and international funders such as the European Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Funding streams include grants comparable to those from the National Institutes of Health, cooperative agreements like those used by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, philanthropic gifts similar to contributions from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and operational revenue from fee-for-service distributions. Staff collaborate with curators at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, database specialists at TAIR (The Arabidopsis Information Resource), and legal advisors versed in policies from the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Category:Biological resource centers Category:Plant genetics repositories