An Automated Capillary Sequencer for Systematics, Population Genetics, Genomics, and Molecular Ecology

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support for acquisition of a modern capillary DNA sequencing instrument capable of determining nearly 200,000 bases a day at 98.5% accuracy, and also capable of high throughput fragment analysis including that of microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms. The instrument will be used in a number of ongoing projects, including an NSF-funded Tree of Life sequencing project aimed at producing a molecular phylogeny of all birds. The instrument will be used. In addition to its role in research, the instrument will be used for training at the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral levels. The instrument will replace an existing slab-gel instrument that has been heavily used for studies of population genetics and evolutionary genomics of avian systems, co-evolutionary genetics of mammals and their parasitic lice, and evolutionary genetics of reptiles and amphibians. The new instrument will provide a several-fold increase in the sequencing capacity that can be brought to bear on these and other projects at the Museum of Natural History.