Use of an automated workstation to facilitate PCR amplification, loading agarose gels and sequencing of DNA templates.

A series of protocols were developed for a commercially available automated workstation to prepare samples for amplification of DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on automated thermal cyclers, to load PCR products onto agarose electrophoretic gels and to carry out dideoxynucleotide sequencing of DNA templates. The protocols and the software programs developed reduced by two-thirds the time required to carry out the procedures manually. The programs and protocols also improved the quality and the consistency of both the PCR products and the sequencing reactions.