Easy and Thorough STR Profiling Service from ATCC

ATCC (American Type Culture Collection), the world’s largest and most diverse bioresource center, provides an STR Profiling Service for human cell line authentication. With over 20 years of experience performing short tandem repeat profiling (STR profiling) on its extensive biorepository – more than any other provider – ATCC offers investigators the easiest and surest solution to verify the identity of their human cell lines.

Researchers simply apply cells to an FTA® card following the instructions provided with the FTA® Sample Collection Kit – a highly convenient method that is only available from ATCC. The need to ship samples on dry ice is eliminated. ATCC will amplify the DNA using the Promega PowerPlex® 16 HS System and analyze the results. Investigators can expect results via e-mail within 5 days from receipt of their sample at ATCC.

ATCC offers two levels of service: Basic and Verified. The Basic STR Profiling Service (135-X) includes a signed Cell Line Authentication Report containing an easy-to-understand STR allele table and electropherograms that support the allele calls at each locus. The Verified STR Profiling Service (135-XV) includes everything in the Basic service, plus known reference profiling against the ATCC STR Profile database, and a comprehensive interpretation of the results.

Unlike normal diploid cells, many continuous cell lines – especially cancer cell lines – are karyotypically abnormal or genetically unstable, making data interpretation difficult. And as misidentified cell lines continue to plague research, human cell line authentication via STR analysis is becoming a requirement of many journals prior to publication, and funding agencies.

STR loci are among the most informative polymorphic markers in the genome. ATCC generates the STR profile by simultaneously amplifying 15 STR loci, plus the amelogenin gene for gender determination, in a multiplex PCR reaction enabling a 1 in >1017 matching rate for unrelated individuals.