High throughput genotyping & gene expression work station for research in ecology and evolution

过去30年见证了分子技术令人难以置信的进步，这些技术已经渗透到生物学的各个领域，包括生态学、保护生物学和进化生物学。高分辨率分子标记提供了对种群和群落动态、交配系统、适应、分散和种群连通性、进化关系和物种起源的见解。反过来，这些数据可以为保护物种的管理、人类造成的生境破碎化的影响以及气候变化对物种分布的影响提供信息。然而，解决这些问题通常需要我们收集和处理来自100个个体的样本，并调查越来越多的DNA标记（bbb15）。在这里，我们建议购买一台高通量自动化两台96孔板贝克曼基因分型和基因表达工作站，这将i.缓解我们目前在共享核心设施中平均2-3个月的积压；允许我们显著增加我们运行的基因座和样本的数量，iii。允许我们探索新的研究途径，特别是与基因表达和北方范围限制有关的研究途径，以及iv.促进最新分子生态技术的前沿研究生和博士后培训。该设施将由10名生态学和进化论教师共享，每年至少有30名研究生和16名本科生论文学生使用，并在成本回收的基础上向我们的终身和兼职生物学同事提供25名。

The last 3 decades have borne witness to incredible advances in molecular techniques that have permeated all fields of biology, including ecology, conservation and evolutionary biology. High-resolution molecular markers provide insights into population and community dynamics, mating systems, adaptation, dispersal and population connectivity, evolutionary relationships, and species origins. In turn, such data may inform management of species of conservation concern, impacts of human-caused habitat fragmentation, and the influence of climate change on species distributions. Addressing such questions, however, typically requires that we collect and process samples from 100s of individuals and survey increasing numbers of DNA markers (>15). Here we propose to purchase a high-throughput automated two 96 well-plate Beckman genotyping and gene expression work station that will i. alleviate an average 2-3 month backlog that we now experience in our shared core facility, ii. allow us to significantly increase the number of loci and samples we run, iii. permit us to explore new avenues of research particularly related to gene expression and northern range limits, and iv. facilitate leading edge graduate and post doc training in the latest molecular ecological techniques. The facility will be shared among 10 ecology and evolution faculty, be used by a minimum of some 30 graduate students and 16 undergraduate thesis students per year, and made available to >25 of our tenured and adjunct biology colleagues on a cost recovery basis.