Seed.Code: Developing Software-Supported Arabidopsis Floral Dip at a Community Biolab

Seed.code is a plant biotechnology project developed over the last year at SoundBio Lab, a community biolab in Seattle, Washington. Spaces such as SoundBio Lab, often referred under the umbrella of DIYbio labs, are open to anyone, regardless of credentials, to gain skills and execute laboratory research projects. Plant biotechnology excites the interest and enthusiasm of amateur as well as professional researchers but barriers to participation are high both for obtaining the necessary materials and gaining the skills and knowledge necessary to make use of them. Our team's goal, developed collaboratively, is to develop Aquarium software to support a low-cost Arabidopsis thaliana floral dip workflow which could be used downstream for educational or research applications in any setting, including other DIYbio labs. Aquarium is free and open-source software developed at the Klavins lab to support inventory and data management as well as execution of work at the lab bench. The Seed.code team have so carried out a first test run of the workflow to produce putative T-1 transgenic seeds expressing a 35-S::UidA-GUS transgene. We present a summary of the prototype Aquarium workflow, work carried out so far and future plans for this project.