Making the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center Business Model Possible

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Intellectual MeritThe Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) was established in 1991 and supported since by NSF through five-year grants. The ABRC collects, preserves, reproduces and distributes diverse seed and DNA stocks of Arabidopsis thaliana and related species. Information and ordering services for the distributed resources are maintained by The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR; http://arabidopsis.org/). The ABRC serves a dynamic community of plant researchers with a common goal to understand the basic processes of flowering plants, as well as to apply this understanding to further crop improvement. The activity of the Center is essential towards full-filling the community goal of having multiple mutant alleles for every one of the Arabidopsis ~27,000 genes. Approximately 10,000 registered users in TAIR utilize the Center by ordering close to 100,000 stocks annually from a collection of approximately 1,000,000 stocks, equally distributed between seeds and DNA. The impact of the ABRC is represented by a significant contribution to hundreds of articles by the Arabidopsis community in high-impact journals each year. Stock donation and demand continues to grow and is likely to remain high for the foreseeable future. Here, the ABRC requests funds to upgrade and increase the capacity and efficiency of the DNA and seed-handling operations. Specifically, funds are requested for a cold dry room with a specialized rack system for short and long-term seed storage, for a specialized -20 C freezer for very long-term seed storage, a robotic system for increased output in DNA stock operations, and a soil handler to increase planting reproducibility and efficiency. These equipment pieces are central to the realization of a Business Model in which ABRC becomes significantly more independent from NSF support in its operations.Broader ImpactsRealizing the strategic position of the ABRC in the Arabidopsis and plant community, the Center started a pilot program to harness the know-how and stocks at the ABRC to enhance the awareness and visibility of plants in K-12. Towards this objective, ABRC personnel developed a three-module research project entitled "Greening the Classroom: Arabidopsis thaliana as a tool to teach plant genetics", the relationship of plants with the environment, and plant development for high-school students". This plan is currently being implemented in high-schools in the Columbus City School district, and will be expanded to a number of other schools in Ohio. This effort is supported by the Curriculum Quality Control Council of Columbus City Schools (http://www.columbus.k12.oh.us), which included the "Greening the Classroom" initiative in the official curriculum of CCS. In addition, the ABRC participated in the organization of the second Plant Functional Genomics Workshop (http://www.biosci.ohiostate.edu/workshop/). This workshop offered a hands-on practical experience combined with lectures by leaders in the field to ~20 participants (high-school teachers, undergrads, Ph.D. students, postdocs and junior faculty members) from all over the world. These educational initiatives are significantly complementing the sustained and highly-valued community service mission of the ABRC, thus increasing the appreciation for Arabidopsis and plants in general in our younger generations.Co-funded by the Divisions of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Integrative Organismal Systems, and Biological Infrastructure.