OBIC Aids in Funding of New Genotyping Facility

The Molecular and Cellular Imaging Center (MCIC) is a shared technology laboratory located at the Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, Ohio. They house equipment and provide services in microscopy including: light, confocal, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and in the area of genomics and molecular biology, small scale sequencing, genotyping, massive paralleled sequencing. The MCIC mission is to support research at the Ohio State University. The facility is also available to other research and educational institutions.

OBIC funding is permitting the establishment of a ‘full-service’ centralized genotyping facility, to support OARDC breeding efforts. OARDC plant breeders can now perform all genotyping steps, from DNA extraction to genetic markers mapping at the MCIC using automation and new technologies. This allows them to collect more reproducible data, effectively increase the number of analyzed samples, expand the rate of discovery and also conduct experiments, which were not feasible before. For example, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) are the most abundant and thereby most useful genetic markers for breeders. Equipment such as the Luminex200 and the BeadExpress that was purchased with OBIC funding, allows scientists to examine from 1200 to 8000 genotypes in one assay, compared to perhaps 60 genotypes we were able to examine earlier. Similarly, the newest instrument on the market, the Illumina Genome Analyzer, which employs the latest technology of massive parallel DNA sequencing, will soon allow sequence and map SNP markers on a whole soybean or other plant genome in just few days. In parallel with this dramatic increase in data acquisition, the MCIC is also working towards implementing computational and bioinformatics tools for data analysis and storage.

Besides serving OARDC plant breeders, OARDC and OSU faculty with research programs in microbial genomics, cancer research and genetics and other genomics areas are taking advantage of the new resources at the MCIC. OBIC funding enables faculty to take advantage of new cutting edge technologies and expand their research programs putting them at a serious advantage for extramural funding. In addition access to such facilities at the OARDC aids in recruiting new faculty.