Making the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center Business Model Possible

知识价值拟南芥生物资源中心(ABRC)成立于1991年，自那以来得到了美国国家科学基金会的五年赠款支持。ABRC收集、保存、繁殖和分发不同种类的拟南芥及其近缘物种的种子和DNA。分布式资源的信息和订购服务由拟南芥信息资源(TAIR；http://arabidopsis.org/).)维护ABRC为一个充满活力的植物研究人员社区提供服务，他们有一个共同的目标，即了解开花植物的基本过程，并将这种理解应用于进一步的作物改良。该中心的活动对于充分实现拟南芥~27,000个基因中每个基因都有多个突变等位基因的社区目标至关重要。泰尔的大约10,000名注册用户利用该中心，每年从大约1,000,000只股票中订购近100,000只股票，这些股票平均分布在种子和DNA之间。ABRC的影响体现在拟南芥社区每年在高影响力期刊上发表的数百篇文章上的重大贡献。股票捐赠和需求继续增长，并可能在可预见的未来保持高位。在这里，ABRC请求资金来升级和提高DNA和种子处理业务的能力和效率。具体地说，请拨资金用于冷干室、专门用于短期和长期种子储存的机架系统、专门用于长期种子储存的-20摄氏度冷冻机、用于增加DNA储存作业产量的机器人系统以及用于提高种植可再生性和效率的土壤处理机。这些设备对于实现ABRC的商业模式至关重要，在这种模式下，ABRC在运营中变得更加独立于NSF的支持。布罗德影响为了实现ABRC在拟南芥和植物界的战略地位，该中心启动了一项试点计划，利用ABRC的技术和库存来提高K-12工厂的知名度和可见度。为了实现这一目标，ABRC的工作人员开发了一个名为《绿化教室：拟南芥作为教授植物遗传学的工具》、《植物与环境的关系》和《高中生植物发展》的三个模块的研究项目。这项计划目前正在哥伦布市学区的高中实施，并将扩展到俄亥俄州的其他一些学校。这一努力得到了哥伦布市学校课程质量控制委员会(http://www.columbus.k12.oh.us)，)的支持，该委员会将“绿化教室”倡议纳入了哥伦布市学校的正式课程。此外，该中心还参加了第二届植物功能基因组学研讨会(http://www.biosci.ohiostate.edu/workshop/).该研讨会为来自世界各地的约20名参与者(高中教师、本科生、博士后、博士后和初级教职员工)提供了实践经验和该领域领导者的演讲。这些教育活动大大补充了ABRC持续和高度重视的社区服务使命，从而增加了我们年轻一代对拟南芥和一般植物的欣赏。

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.