Core Resource: Summary / Abstract This proposal seeks continued funding support for the Tetrahymena Stock Center, which serves as the primary resource for the preservation and distribution of genetically defined strains of Tetrahymena thermophila for researchers in the United States (U.S.) and world-wide. This NIH-supported Stock Center stores and makes available over 2000 strains to researchers, facilitating innovative studies by the current generation of scientists. The grant also supports Tetrahymena Genome Database, the main repository of genomic information for this organism. The overall outcome of the Center’s activities is the expansion of knowledge of biological processes that underlie human health and disease. The aims for the Resource component are to 1) continue to act as a repository accepting new strains and making live cultures of T. thermophila available to interested users at reasonable cost. Ensuring the secure maintenance of the resource for the dissemination of T. thermophila strains and useful plasmids remains the primary focus for the resource. We will evaluate our current practices and implement changes to improve its operations. The overall impact will be to make the central functions of the Stock center more efficient and able to better serve an expanding user base; 2) integrate large collections into the Stock Center. During the next funding period, we will place specific emphasis on preserving larger collections of a few long-established laboratories to ensure that they are not lost to the research community. In addition, we will integrate an array of gene tagging/expression vectors into the repository for distribution to the broader research community and advertise these along with strain engineering services, which is attractive to those with limited resources and/or experience in strain development; 3) increase the visibility of Stock Center resources and streamline data curation. We plan improvements to our web portal to make the discovery of resources more transparent. To better communicate with users, we will produce an electronic newsletter twice a year, which is expected to increase traffic to the website and requests for resources. We will also mediate the development of a micropublication pipeline to speed the dissemination of research findings by investigators, including those at the baccalaureate level; 4) improve the informational function of the resource by curating new genomic information into Tetrahymena Genome Database (TGD). TGD is a primary source for gene and genomic information of ciliates used in research. To maintain this key function of the resource, we will update gene annotations, add new gene expression data to TGD to facilitate new research, and increase linkages to common databases to make our resources more findable. Furthermore, we will increase the analysis tools available to ciliate researchers by partnering with Dr. Ting Wang (Washington University in St. Louis) to display ciliate genome...