The Programs of Environmental Engineering and Science at the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University, in collaboration
with the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University,
announce the availability of the Oligonucleotide Probe Database (OPD).
The goals of OPD are :
(1) to provide World Wide Web (WWW) access to a growing collection of data
related to the design, characterization, and use of oligonucleotide probes
and PCR primers, and
(2) to facilitate the development of an oligonucleotide probe naming
convention.
The current release of OPD contains data for 72 oligonucleotide probes
designed and characterized primarily for use in molecular microbial
ecology. An oligonucleotide probe naming convention which is both
unambiguous and informative is suggested. OPD strongly encourages the
submission of oligonucleotide probe characterization and application data
via on-line submission forms.
Currently, OPD contains data for: (1) probe design, (2) probe
characterization studies (temperature of dissociation studies using
membrane hybridizations), (3) probe specificity studies, (4) use of probes
for in situ hybridizations, (5) use of primers for PCR, and (6) specificity
of PCR primers.
OPD may be accessed at http://www.cme.msu.edu/OPD. If you don't have
access to the WWW, we can send you a preprint of the publication that
provides more details on OPD and discusses the oligonucleotide nomenclature
we suggest. Please request preprints via e-mail at OPD at uiuc.edu or stop by
our poster at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology,
May 19-23, New Orleans. We are presenting our poster in Session 188 (N)
Molecular Approaches in Microbial Ecology (Wed., May 22, 9:00 -10:30 a.m.).
