24.06.2005 - GABI-Kat T-DNA insertion lines will become freely available

In short:
- Seeds for confirmed GABI-Kat lines are to be transferred to NASC.
- Lines still to be confirmed are available from GABI-Kat for a fee of 100,- EUR per line after signing a disclaimer.

In the context of the German Plant Genome Research Program GABI (Genomanalyse im biologischen System Pflanze), the GABI-Kat project has produced T-DNA insertion mutants for Arabidopsis thaliana which were subsequently characterized by generating flanking sequence tags (FSTs).

GABI-Kat was initiated at the Max-Planck-Institute of Plant Breeding Research and aims to generate at least 80000 T-DNA transformed lines for the sequenced accession Columbia (Col-0). Seeds of single lines (T2 seeds from T1 plants) are harvested, and genomic DNA from T1 plants and is extracted to produce FSTs from their insertion sites by a linker-ligation-PCR based approach. The FST data are then mapped to the genome and the results are made available both via the internet (http://www.gabi-kat.de/), and as a bulk download file for integration into for example SIGnAL or FLAGdb++. Insertion lines can be ordered via a web form and seeds (usually T2) of confirmed insertion lines are then delivered to users.

The GABI program is a private-public partnership that is funded by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry for Education and Research) and the WPG (Business Platform promoting GABI Plant Genome Research e.V.).

The funding partners and the MPG are now happy to announce that GABI-Kat lines will now become freely available to the international research community. GABI-Kat lines that have been confirmed will be transferred to NASC as sets of T3 seed harvested from a segregating family of single T2 plants. This will allow direct user access to potentially homozygous material for a given insertion line.

In addition to accessing characterised lines via the stock center, users can order insertion lines that are not (yet) available from NASC directly from GABI-Kat. If confirmed, these lines will be delivered for a fee of 100,- EUR per line after signing a disclaimer.

The transfer of lines from GABI-Kat to NASC has already been initiated and will continue until the anticipated end of the GABI-Kat project in December 2008.

A German press release on this topic is available at: http://www.mpg.de/

Bernd Weisshaar
PI of GABI-Kat
MPI of Plant Breeding Research, Koeln, Germany
Please direct emails regarding GABI-Kat to: infogabi-kat.de

Current Address:
Bielefeld University, Department of Biology, Bielefeld, Germany

Websites:
GABI-Kat: http://www.gabi-kat.de/
GABI program: http://www.gabi.de/
MPI of Plant Breeding Research: http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/
Business Platform GABI: http://www.gabi.de/gabi-wpg-ev.php oder http://www.bdp-online.de/de/WPG/