DArTseq genotyping of Switchgrass accessions

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This procurement will be processed pursuant to FAR part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. No solicitation will be issued.

All responsible sources who believe they can provide the services listed may submit, in writing to the identified point of contact, a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. Responses are to be received within 10 days of this notice. No telephone calls are being accepted.

The United States Department Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research Unit (WSFRU) in Lincoln Nebraska, intends to negotiate and award on a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) basis. Contract type will be a Firm Fixed Price for a period of performance of approximately two months. This will be awarded to Diversity Arrays Technology. This is for DArTseq genotyping of Switchgrass accessions. NAICS Code is 541380.

Award is In accordance with both 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) and FAR 13.106-1 (b)(1)(i)
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The DNA sequencing services are to be provided by Diversity Arrays Technology Pty/Ltd (Australia) and this order is placed in the context of a grant proposal (708-3042-104) awarded by DOE (Department of Energy) for three years (2016-2019).

The genome profiling technique (DArTseq) developed by Diversity Arrays Technology P/L (DArT PL) is a proprietary high-throughput approach and is very cost-effective and competitive as compared with other available techniques. It was determined to be the cheapest. Additionally, the choice of DArTseq is justified by the large number of markers (both DArT and SNP) to be extracted, which is unique to this technique. This latter capability is important in order to obtain a good coverage of the switchgrass genome for marker-trait associations, to make prediction with precision, and to apply marker-assisted selection in the breeding program. Moreover, DArT PL provides, as part of the services, some pre-screening of the obtained sequences, which will save a lot of time in our downstream analyses. Diversity Arrays Technology is well established and the technique has been shown to work in several polyploid crops like switchgrass and in publications from research conducted in the US and overseas. There are several sequencing techniques out there and we did specify, when writing the grant, that DArTseq is the most efficient and economical for ARS. We cannot change to another one at this time. Diversity Arrays Technologies is the only vendor that can complete DArTseq.

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