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Mosquito Worklist

A closer look at the Mosquito worklist format

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Written by Eduardo Abeliuk
Updated over a week ago

As we saw previously a worklist is essentially a CSV or a text file with information (commands consisting of individual lines or records with data and instructions) for the liquid handler machines. Exporting an Mosquito worklist from BUILD results in a .csv file following this format:

The first line says Worklist. The format of the worklist file must adhere to certain standards. The word ‘Worklist’ must appear on its own on a line prior to the worklist data. It must be followed by either a carriage return or a comma. All numeric data in the file will then be interpreted as pipetting commands; all other data will be ignored. 

  • Source Position, Column, Row, Destination Position, Column, Row, Transfer Volume

  • Source position and destination position indicate the location of plates in the instrument. Source position is set to 1 by default. Destination position is set to 2 by default

  • Wells are identified through two parameters, column and row: Column and row indicate the column position and row position of source wells and destination wells (e.g. well A1 would be column position = 1 and row position = 1)

  • Transfer volumes are in nL

  • Example (see the image below) : 1,1,1,2,1,1,100 represents a transfer of 100nL from position 1, column 1, row 1 to position 2, column 2, row 1. 

See Mosquito Advanced Operator & Training Manual, Version 3.2.1

  •  ‘Worklist transfers’ (pages 24 to 26)

If you use Microsoft Excel to create or edit a CSV file for import, ensure that the standard separator for lists is a comma, and the decimal symbol is a period (i.e. in Windows, under Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region > Change date, time, or number formats > Formats > Additional Settings > List separator & Decimal symbol). Save your edited table in CSV format before closing Excel.

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