In article <51edu7$9nt at net.bio.net>, Javier Quinteiro <bnjquint at usc.es> wrote:
> Hi
>> I need information and personal opinions from users about accuracy,
> speed,relative materials cost, handling,... to select between diferent
> automatic sequencers,( Vistra form Amersham, ALF Express from Pharmacia
> and ABI from Perkin).
> Thank you.
>> --
> Javier Quinteiro -bnjquint at usc.es-> Dpt.of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
> Faculty of Biology.
> University of Santiago de Compostela. Spain.
>> Adress:
> Dpto. de Bioqummica y Biologma Molecular.
> Facultad de Biologma.
> Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.
> 15706 Santiago de Compostela.Spain
I have not used the ALF and I am not familiar with Vistra.
But the last I heard of the Alf, it runs 40 lanes with one color dye,
allowing 10 samples per gel(4 lanes per sample, A C G T). The time to run
the gel was less than the time to run the ABI 373, 6 hours apporox vs. 12
hours on the ABI 373. But you can run 36 samples on the ABI 373.
Now ABI have the 377 and it runs long or short gels and is probably faster
than ALF now. Also it runs 36 samples standard and now you can upgrade to
66 samples per gel.
I have been using the 373 for 5 years and have no complaints. It is the
market leader.
The new 377 is a better version. It is eay to handle and the cost of each
sequence reaction is about $25 -$30, from which you get 400 - 500 bases.
That's 66 * 400 = over 26kb per gel.
Cycle sequencing is very dependant on template quality, and if you have
good quality DNA you have good sequence, 99% accurate over the first 400
bases.
Hope this helps
Roger McCarrick
http://core1.joslab.harvard.edu/core/welcome.html
