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Table 1 Relative cost of regenerating sequences for different classes of experiments

From: The future of DNA sequence archiving

Class

Description

Example for DNA sequencing

Example for Imaging

1

Historical sampling of environment or time point-specific elements

Environmental genomics studies with a longitudinal component; Pathogen sequencing from epidemics

Earth imaging; environmental imaging for longitudinal studies

2

Very rare objects

Ancient DNA specimens; forensic samples

Fossils; rare meteorites

3

Longitudinal studies which could in theory be rerun in the future but have a > 10 year horizon to recreate

RNA-seq and DNA-seq from a prospective cohort; environmental sequencing of a specific field trial/intervention in an environment

MRI scans from a prospective cohort; cell imaging from a cohort

4

Samples acquired from patients or animals with a high individual acquisition cost, but a conceptually continuous generation

Cancer DNA sequencing

Histology samples from Cancer

5

A complex experiment with > 6 month resource development

RNA-seq on a specifically created mouse gene knockout (mouse colonies stored)

Cell imaging on a specific RNAi library

6

A routine experiment with < 6 month resource development

RNA-seq of a standard cell line

Routine imaging of Drosophila embryos

7

Verification experiment as a component in an overall flow

Resequencing of insert vector

Imaging of cell lines to determine confluence levels

  1. Relative costs decrease from class 1 through class 7.