The Colony Picking Feedback tool allows users to upload a CSV file or select a table that specifies how colonies are picked (usually generated by a picker robot) from source plates in inventory to destination plates. The source plates must exist in inventory. If the destination plate exists in inventory it must not contain any materials.
Input: a CSV or Excel file or Data Table of ‘colony picking feedback’ schema describing how colonies are picked.
Output: Plates of picked colonies.
You can find more detailed definitions of the terms mentioned in this article in the glossary.
Prerequisites: The Source plates (plates containing colonies) must exist in the inventory and must have barcodes. If the destination plate already exists in inventory, it must not contain any materials.
You can find the ‘Colony Picking Feedback’ tool under Tools > Tool Library. Click ‘Launch Tool’ to start using the tool.
The tool will walk you through several steps to create plates of picked colonies. You need to complete each step before proceeding to the next. After completing a step, the completed step mark (circle) will turn green with a checkmark. You can always use the ‘previous’ button to go back to any previous step.
1. Select Feedback Data: Select colony feedback data from the ‘Data Tables’ inventory or upload the data in either CSV or Excel format.
1.a. Select Data Table: This step is optional. With the ‘Select Data Table’ option, you need to upload a data table of type ‘Colony Picking Feedback’ ahead of time by going to Data > Data Tables > Upload > Upload Table. Once the data has been uploaded to the ‘Data Tables’ inventory, you can then select a data table from all the data tables of type ‘Colony Picking Feedback’ in the ‘Data Tables’ inventory.
1.b. Upload Feedback Data: This step is required. Turn on the toggle button and select a data file in CSV or Excel format from your local computer. The template for colony picking feedback is shown below. The required fields are ‘Destination Plate Barcode.’ ‘Destination Well’, ‘Source Plate Barcode’, and ‘Source Location’. Other fields are optional.
Destination Plate Barcode: the barcode of the destination container that contains the picked colonies
Destination Well: the well on the destination plate that stores the picked colony
Source Plate Barcode: the barcode of the source plate on which colonies were formed
Source Location: the location (equivalent to well location) of the colony that was picked from the source plate
X_Coordinate: the X-coordinate of the colony that was picked from the source plate with respect to the source plate
Y_Coordinate: the Y-coordinate of the colony that was picked from the source plate with respect to the source plate
Diameter: the diameter of the colony that was picked from the source plate
Date: the date the colony was picked
Time: the time the colony was picked
Once the feedback data is uploaded or selected, users can review the data before proceeding to the next step. If the system detects any invalid information (eg. barcodes do not exist in inventory, or source aliquots do not have any materials), warnings will be displayed in the form of red info icons next to problematic entries. These warnings need to be resolved before proceeding to the next step.
2. Destination Container Configuration: Select the destination container type and give the container a name. Depending on the number of destination containers, the container’s name will be appended with an incremental number starting from 1. The format of the destination plate is validated when you select the ‘Destination Container Type’. For example, if the feedback data has a destination well set to be ‘A13’, then the system will warn you when you try to select a 96-well plate as a destination container since A13 is not a valid 96-well row-column index.
After clicking ‘Submit’, you will then be notified that the colony picking feedback tool is complete, and there is a link to the destination plate(s) that store(s) picked colonies. Clicking on this link will direct you to the record view of the destination plate.
You can view an individual aliquot by double-clicking on an entry in the table.
You can view the sample record by clicking on the blue link next to ‘Sample’ (Eg. Pool1-Isolated1). This sample has the sample type of ‘Isolated Sample’ indicating that it was isolated from a pooled sample. It also contains information about the picked colony (the source sample, X-, Y- coordinates, diameter, date, and time it was picked). This sample has the status of ‘Unvalidated’ because it has not yet been associated with sequence data.
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