Tie-up to Enhance Retail IT Investment

With the increasing demand, diversified nature, and business processes in the retail sector, Sybase - provider of enterprise infrastructure and mobile software - has partnered Manthan Systems - solution provider of Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions for the Retail Industry. This will enable them to enhance businesses and customers.

According to Sri Ganesh, marketing director of Manthan Systems, this pact aims to bring greater value to retailers who opt for Sybase IQ database platform for their data warehousing needs with ARC.

ARC is a business intelligence solution that can be deployed rapidly and cost effectively. It provides cross functional analytics for every retail function, and empowers users at all levels with the right kind of analytics. ARC data model variants are made to accommodate sectors of the retail industry like food and grocery, fashion and lifestyle, mass merchandise formats, as well as specialty retail segments.

With IQ Datawarehousing solution and ARC retail business intelligence and analytical suite, customers can optimize and enhance their current IT investments. They can also link together the valuable data resources already in place, and extend the reach of business critical information to users on front lines. This will give them agility and productivity edge across all areas of their business.

Feature and benefits of dLUTE SEQ

Improved sequencing data

The small volume of a dLUTE SEQ reaction provides true scaled reaction conditions (i.e. the concentration of the sequencing chemistry is the same in both an undiluted standard reaction and a dLUTE SEQ reaction). The dLUTE SEQ mix maintains the sequencing DNA polymerase with the optimal nucleotide and dye labeled terminator concentrations. This avoids the "ski-slope" effect (i.e. rapid fall off in signal strength) observed with excessive chemistry dilutions (Figure 2A). The dramatic increase in large DNA sequencing product signal can be seen with the dLUTE SEQ reactions, even when using only one quarter (0.1µl) the amount of sequencing chemistry (Figure 2B).

Figure 2. Raw sequencing traces of (A) Standard diluted standard and (B) dLUTE SEQ DNA sequencing reaction with 0.1µl of BigDye v3.1 in a total volume of 2.5µl (0.25µl aqueous). Both reactions were purified by alcohol precipitation and analyzed on an ABI 3700 DNA sequencer.

The dLUTE SEQ sequencing reagent allows sequencing reactions to be performed in volumes far below the accuracy of the conventional pipetting equipment. For example, an effective 0.25µl sequencing reaction (using 0.1µl of BigDye premix) can be created using an easily handled 2.5µl volume of dLUTE SEQ. In addition, modest DNA sequencing chemistry dilutions can be used enabling as the use of as little as 25 nanolitres of BigDye per reaction.

dLUTE SEQ DNA Sequencing BigDye Dilution Reagent

dLUTE SEQ™ is an unique DNA sequencing reagent developed by Nucleics allowing nanolitre scale DNA sequencing reactions to be performed using conventional microlitre scale fluidics equipment and protocols. dLUTE SEQ provides the following benefits over existing approaches to save on DNA sequencing premix chemistry:

• Sequencing reactions require as little as 25 nanolitres of ABI BigDye DNA sequencing premix reagent. This equivalent to a 1:320 dilution!
• Reaction substrates are maintained at the optimum concentration resulting in longer reads and more robust results when sequencing DNA.
• Avoids the need for new high precision liquid handling equipment.

Figure 1. The two phase states of dLUTE SEQ. Left. Set-up state. The aqueous phase (pink) is dispersed throughout the inert phase. Right. Reaction state. The aqueous reaction-phase (red) has separated from the inert phase (clear).

Modern DNA sequencers, such as the Applied Biosystems 3100, 3130 and 3730, and the Amersham Biosciences MegaBACE 1000 and 4000, require a tiny fraction of the labeled sequencing fragments created by a full scale DNA sequencing reaction. Given this, combined with the high cost of sequencing reagent, has led many sequence centers to reduce sequencing costs by scaling down the reaction volumes and/or by using large dilutions of the premix reagent. Using this approach many core facilities have been able reduce the amount of DNA sequencing premix chemistry used to as little as 1/128th that required in full scale reactions, although 1 in 16 to 1 in 32 is more typical.

While these approaches can offer very significant cost savings, precision limitations in the fluidics equipment used to set up the reactions (especially the robotics pipetting equipment) has prevented precise matching of the reaction scale to the high sensitivity of the DNA sequencing instruments. Even when it possible to pipette sub-microlitre volumes accurately, it is impossible to cycle sequence the sequencing reactions without excessive evaporation. Furthermore, the use of very high reagent dilutions has a very negative impact on trace read lengths and reaction success rate. This is due to the enzymatic DNA sequencing reaction becoming substrate limited - basically the polymerase is starved of nucleotides and is unable to complete the sequencing extension. Because of all these problems, most sequencing reactions are currently performed at scales far in excess of the true sensitivity of the DNA sequencing instruments.

The dLUTE SEQ sequencing reagent avoids these problems by using a novel two state formulation chemistry (see Figure 1). In the first state (the setup state), the aqueous sequencing reagents are dispersed in a large volume of the inert component of the dLUTE formulation. This effectively dilutes the aqueous reagents and enables pipetting with standard equipment. The dLUTE SEQ DNA sequencing reaction is then induced by heat to enter the second (reaction) state. In this state, the aqueous phase separates from the inert phase forming a small "bubble" (in which the DNA sequencing reaction takes place) overlain by the inert phase.