Dr. Mary Anderson, Director
The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre
School of Biological Sciences
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
The United Kingdom's Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre is part of a multinational, coordinated scientific program to understand the molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, growth and developmental processes of flowering plants, using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system.
Ideal Research Subject
Although of no economic value, Arabidopsis has many attributes that recommend it as a model system. Its potential in this respect is perhaps best exemplified by the plant's nickname, the "Botanical Drosophila." So what makes Arabidopsis such an ideal subject for research? Arabidopsis is a small flowering plant that functions like any other angiosperm. However, it can be grown at high densities-- several thousand lines per greenhouse. The plant has a fast cycling time of 6 to 8 weeks so that up to eight generations can be grown in a year, thus facilitating rapid genetic analysis. Using classical genetic analysis, 117 genes have already been mapped on to the five chromosome pairs of the plant.
The plant can also produce many progeny. Following selfpollination, the seed pods, or siliques, each contain more than 30 seeds, one plant can have as many as 200 siliques. Thus, several thousand seeds can be produced from a single plant. The small size of the seeds (about 1 mm long) and plants (30 cm high) simplifies seed mutagenesis and the screening of large populations for new mutations. Arabidopsis also has a small genome size, partially because the plant carries a very low level of repetitive deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The haploid nuclear genome size is only 100,000 kilobase pairs, which is similar in size to the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans, only 7 times larger than that of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and only 15 times larger than the bacterium E. coli! The genome is also significantly smaller than that of any other plant used in research or in agriculture.
Funding and Staff
The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, located at the University of Nottingham, is funded by the AFRC Plant Molecular Biology Programme; the European Community BRIDGE Programme, "Arabidopsis as a tool for isolating genes of agronomic importance;" and the University of Nottingham. The Centre has been funded along with an Arabidopsis DNA Stock Centre at K”ln, Germany, to serve the European scientific community. The Nottingham Centre is managed by the Head of Centre, Dr. Bernard Mulligan. Dr. Mary Anderson is its newly appointed Director. Two technicians, Mr. Paul Anthony, and Ms. Patricia Fredericks, handle the growth of the plants. The K”ln Centre is run by Dr. Jeff Dangl.
Centre's Role
The Nottingham Stock Centre functions as a point of collection, maintenance, cataloging, and distribution of mutant strains and ecotypes of Arabidopsis. The intention is that the Centre will work in close association with an American Resource Centre, which is a joint seed and DNA resource centre, based at Ohio State University and run by Dr. Randy Scholl (see his article this issue), to provide an international resource network for the worldwide Arabidopsis Program. To fulfill the changing demands of this fast developing area of research, the Centre anticipates working in close association with Arabidopsis researchers. The Centre has two primary roles--a repository for a diverse collection of Arabidopsis lines and a source of information exchange with the scientific community.
The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre already maintains approximately 150 lines of hormone, flowering, biochemical, and form mutants. Many multiple mutants are also available; these are of particular value as marker lines for the mapping of new mutants. Most of these lines have been constructed by Dr. Maarten Koorneef, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
The size and scope of the Centre's holdings will increase dramatically. Over the next year the Centre will incorporate the Arabidopsis Information Service (AIS) collection of Professor Kranz, from Frankfurt, which contains over a thousand lines. As the Kranz collection is integrated into the Nottingham collection, a userfriendly database will be created that will carry very detailed information about each line. Initially, the database will not have on-line access, but the Centre's staff will gladly access, upon request, any information required. The database will be compatible with the one established at Ohio State University. The Nottingham Centre intends to produce a short-form Seed List as the Kranz lines are characterized. Eventually, a detailed catalog of all the accessions will be published.
Seed Donations Encouraged
To maximize the genetic diversity held at the Centre, the staff encourages the donation of Arabidopsis seeds from as many different sources as possible. If individuals have any novel lines and are prepared for them to be released, the Centre will bulk the seed and offer a safe permanent repository for the line. The Centre is also prepared to hold bulked seed until the details of a particular line have been published. The line will be named and assigned a code for identification purposes. Organizing a central holding center is important in that, at the very least, it will save time and effort in administrating requests and, furthermore, ensure that valuable lines are not lost.
Hopefully, the Arabidopsis Stock Centres will be used by all members of the Arabidopsis research community.
For more information or to obtain a copy of the Centre's latest Seed List, contact Dr. Mary Anderson, Director, Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K. Telephone: +44 602 791216. Fax: +44 602 424270. e-mail: PBZMLH@UK.AC.NOTTINGHAM.CCC.VAX or PBZMLH@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK