The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission's (CRITFC) genetic laboratory is using Fluidigm's integrated fluidic circuit (IFC) technology to research the genetics of fish in the Columbia River.
CRITFC uses Fluidigm's 96.96 Dynamic Array chip and the EP1 System, allowing it to process 96 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) markers with 96 salmon DNA samples to provide 9,216 simultaneous reactions per chip.
A fully configured EP1 System can process more than 200,000 genotypes per day using Taqman assays.
Shawn Narum, lead geneticist of CRITFC, said: 'We are using Fluidigm technology to characterise genetic variation in fish populations to better understand their diversity, adaptation and dispersal.
'Genotypes from these SNP markers provide a genetic signature for specific populations.
'That genetic signature may be used to identify unknown-origin fish during migration or in fisheries harvest.
'This provides information with immediate application to fisheries management in the Columbia River basin, including several salmon stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act.' Since 1995, CRITFC has approached salmon restoration through plans and strategies that address salmon recovery at every stage of the salmon's life-cycle.
It is an important facet of the conservation and recovery of salmon in the Columbia River basin.
Narum added: 'We were using traditional life-science equipment that could only process 384 data points at a time.
'With the Fluidigm EP1 System, we benefit from a 24-fold increase in production.' Fluidigm's EP1 system delivers SNP genotyping results with better than 99 per cent call rates and 99.75 per cent accuracy.
All of this is achieved with an easy-to-use, high-throughput workflow that can provide up to 9,216 data points per IFC chip, with results in just four hours of machine time.
The EP1 system, which includes the IFC Controller, Stand-Alone Thermal Cycler and EP1 Reader, provides more than 27,000 genotypes a day.
By adding more IFC controllers and thermal cyclers to be used in conjunction with a single EP1 Reader, laboratories can generate more than 200,000 genotypes in a day.
The EP1 system can also perform digital PCR, such as for copy-number variation analysis.
