Request for a Multi-user Automated DNA sequencing machine

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This is a group proposal to acquire an automated DNA sequencing machine for shared use by investigators at the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The equipment to be purchased includes a DNA sequencing machine and an auxiliary workstation for analyzing data produced by the sequencing machine. Comparative molecular biology has transformed studies of evolution, ecology, biogeography and biodiversity into experimental sciences. Using measures of similarity for ribosomal RNAs, microbiologists can measure genetic differences between members of the same species or reconstruct phylogenies for organisms that span the largest evolutionary distances. Mitochondrial gene sequences provide quantitative genetic tools for biogeography studies in both microbial and multicellular systems. With the advent of polymerase chain reaction techniques, almost any gene family can be incorporated into biodiversity investigations. For any one of these enterprises, the major expense in terms of financial and human resources is that required to determine DNA sequences. Numerous research projects in the Molecular Evolution Program, the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution rely upon comparative analyses of ribosomal RNA sequences, mitochondrial genes or other nuclear coding regions. Despite excellent computational facilities for integrating results of these studies, no automated equipment is available for sequencing DNA in the Woods Hole Scientific Community. If laboratories at the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are to remain competitive in studies of molecular evolution/systematics, molecular ecology and emerging programs in biodiversity, they must have access to shared instrumentation for rapid, automated DNA sequence determinations. The principal benefit will be a dramatic reduction in human resources required for DNA sequence analyses. In addition, this multi-user instrument will further encourage interdisciplinary approaches to studies of molecular ecology, biodiversity and molecular systematics/evolution. Five of the laboratory's represented in this application will form a consortium to sequence ribosomal RNAs from prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Their research objectives include studies of molecular systematics, molecular ecology, biodiversity, and biogeography. Through the common administration and use of this instrumentation, it will be possible to share many costly reagents including a library of primers for rapidly sequencing rRNA coding regions from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Other groups will use the machine to study structure and functional constraints in coding regions such as cytochrome P450, actins, and receptors. Most of these projects represent existing collaborations within the Woods Hole Scientific Community. The automated sequencer will also be available to visiting scientists in the Woods Hole Scientific Community including summer investigators at the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.