STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION OF DNA SAMPLES

A REQUIREMENT EXISTS FOR THE ACQUISITION, STORAGE, AND DISTRIBUTION OF LARGE NUMBERS OF MICRO-SAMPLES OF DNA. USING THE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION AND OTHER METHODS, SPECIFIC DNA SEQUENCES MAY BE AMPLIFIED FROM VERY SMALL GENOMIC STARTING SAMPLES. IF LARGE LIBRARIES OF DNA SAMPLES WERE AVAILABLE, INDIVIDUAL RESEARCHERS COULD ATTACK A VARIETY OF INTERESTING PROBLEMS IN TAXONOMY, EVOLUTION, POPULATION GENETICS, GENETIC SCREENING FOR RADIATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL MUTAGENS, THE VALIDATION OF FORENSIC DNA TECHNOLOGY, AND MANY OTHERS USING PCR, RFLP MAPPING, AND OTHER READILY AVAILABLE TECHNIQUES. RESEARCHERS ARE INVESTIGATING A SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM TO DEVELOP METHODS FOR STORING LARGE NUMBERS OF DNA SAMPLES INCLUDING DRIED CELLS, DNA-ENRICHED EXTRACTS, OR PURIFIED DNA, WITH EACH SAMPLE ENCASED IN A PROTECTIVE ENCLOSURE WITH ATTACHED INDENTIFING BARCODING, ALL ARRANGED FOR CONVENIENT STORAGE AND ACCESS. SVERAL ALTERNATIVE PROTOTYPES FOR SUCH A STORAGE SYSTEM, TOGETHER WITH METHODS FOR EVALUATING EACH, ARE BEING DEVELOPED AND DESCRIBED. COMPUTERIZED ANALYSIS OF RFLP, 2-D DNA, AND OTHER TYPES OF ANALYTICAL IMAGES, IS A COMPONENT OF THE PROJECT.