CSBR:Living Stocks. Securing the future of the Chlamydomonas Resource Center collections: security and accessibility

单细胞绿色衣藻是研究光合作用、代谢途径、鞭毛生物发生和功能、信号转导以及细胞生物学其他方面的独特模式系统。 衣原体使研究人员能够将简单微生物系统中可用的强大遗传技术应用于具有叶绿体和鞭毛的有机体。 该系统还为生物燃料和蛋白质工程的应用研究提供了一个平台。 在藻类系统中，数百个实验室50多年的实验已经产生了4000多个影响许多细胞过程的突变体。 衣原体资源中心，在其第36个年头的运作，作为中央储存库接收，目录，保存和分发野生型和突变培养的衣原体。莱因哈德氏菌 它还保存和分发质粒等分子试剂，并向国际科学界提供关于这种生物体的资料。 该中心准备和分发教学包，简单的试剂，菌株和说明，让高中和大学生物学生和班级进行复杂的实验，例如，生产氢气，而不需要昂贵的实验室设施。 通过维护和分发可用于阐明鞭毛和叶绿体功能的突变株，并通过鼓励新一代研究人员的兴趣，衣原体资源中心在确保这一有价值的模型系统继续为生物学的许多领域提供独特的见解方面发挥着至关重要的作用。该项目的目的是：1）通过在液氮中冷冻保存所有活菌株，一式两份，提高收集的安全性; 2）通过使用最近获得的复制平板机器人制备和分发定制菌株收集物，使收集物中的突变体对用户更有用;以及3）招募本科生测试和改进我们现有的教材套，并帮助中心的联合主任设计新的实验室实验，通过网站分发给教师。 中心活动的这些增强将确保用户能够获得所需的信息和菌株，以最佳地利用这种日益重要的模式生物进行研究和教学。 一个经常更新的网站（chlamy.org）提供了所有文化和质粒的收藏，历史信息和遗传基因座和突变等位基因的参考材料，有用的实验室协议和实验室练习图书馆，以及遗传和分子图谱，并链接到其他相关信息的描述。

The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii serves as a unique model system for studies of photosynthesis, metabolic pathways, flagellar biogenesis and function, signal transduction, and other aspects of cell biology. Chlamydomonas allows researchers to apply the powerful genetic techniques available in a simple microbial system to an organism with chloroplasts and flagella. The system also provides a platform for applied research in biofuels and in protein engineering. Uniquely among algal systems, over 50 years of experimentation by hundreds of laboratories has generated a collection of more than 4000 mutants affecting many cell processes. The Chlamydomonas Resource Center, in its 36th year of operation, serves as the central repository to receive, catalogue, preserve and distribute wild type and mutant cultures of C. reinhardtii. It also maintains and disseminates molecular reagents such as plasmids and provides information on this organism to the international scientific community. The Center prepares and distributes teaching kits, with simple reagents, strains and instructions to allow high school and college biology students and classes to perform sophisticated experiments, producing hydrogen, for example, without needing expensive laboratory facilities. By maintaining and distributing mutant strains that can be used to illuminate the functioning of flagella and chloroplasts, and by encouraging the interest of a new generation of researchers, the Chlamydomonas Resource Center plays a critical role in ensuring that this valuable model system continues to provide unique insights into many areas of biology. The aims of this project are to: 1) improve the security of the collection by cryopreservation of all living strains in liquid nitrogen, in duplicate; 2) make the mutants in the collection more useful to users by preparing and distributing custom collections of strains using a recently acquired replica-plating robot; and 3) enhance the educational use of the collection by recruiting undergraduate students to test and refine our current teaching kits, and to help the co-directors of the Center design new laboratory experiments to be distributed to teachers through the website. These enhancements of Center activities will insure that users have access to the information and strains needed to make optimal use of this increasingly important model organism for research and teaching. A frequently updated web site (chlamy.org) provides descriptions of all cultures and plasmids in the collection, historical information and reference material on genetic loci and mutant alleles, a library of useful laboratory protocols and laboratory exercises, as well as genetic and molecular maps, and links to other relevant information.