Pipetting laboratory automation system ROTOR+

for liquid handlingfor microbiologyworkflow management

Overview
ROTOR+ is a precision benchtop robotic colony arrayer designed for ultra‑fast manipulation of high‑density microbial arrays. It automates liquid pinning to and from 96‑ and 384‑well microtiter plates and performs high‑density agar pinning at 96, 384, 1536 and 6144 colony densities, enabling miniaturised, high‑throughput microbial screening workflows. ROTOR+ is suitable for arraying yeast, fungi, bacteria and algae and integrates into genomic and synthetic genetic array (SGA) pipelines.

Key capabilities
ROTOR+ automates replica plating, liquid transfers and high‑density agar pinning with features tailored for reproducible HTS workflows. The system includes agar sensing, configurable pinning head movements, wet and dry mixing options and software visual prompts for user actions such as plate swaps and protocol steps.

Performance and accuracy
ROTOR+ provides very high transfer efficiency (reported >99% across tested organisms) and supports extreme plating densities to reduce consumables, time and manual benchwork. Published and customer case studies report plating of tens of thousands of colonies on a single plate, enabling rapid identification of rare hits in large libraries.

Software and workflow
The ROTOR+ software offers an intuitive GUI with three basic programs to automate common high‑throughput screening (HTS) tasks and the ability to create bespoke protocols. The software gives stepwise guidance, agar sensing feedback and clear visual cues to simplify complex workflows and reduce operator training time.

Applications

• Library construction
• Library maintenance
• Synthetic Genetic Array (SGA) for genome‑wide interaction mapping
• Functional genetic screens
• Yeast two‑hybrid and protein–protein interaction screens
• Drug target discovery
• Chemical genetic screens
• High‑content screening
• Biofuels strain selection
• Strain improvement and engineering
• Brewery and fermentation strain screening
• Random mutagenesis screens
• High‑throughput streaking
• Replicate and mating workflows

Use cases and examples
ROTOR+ is documented in the literature and in customer case studies for enabling extremely high‑density arraying (for example, tens of thousands of colonies on a single plate) with precision comparable to or exceeding alternative methods. Laboratories report fast adoption, reliable operation and applicability across multiple microbial species.

Testimonials (selected)
Academic and industry users describe ROTOR+ as easy to operate, dependable for large‑scale yeast genetics and microbial screening projects, and effective at scaling HTS workflows.

Technical specifications

• Commercial name / model: ROTOR+
• Manufacturer / brand: Singer Instruments
• Supported liquid plate formats: 96‑well and 384‑well microtiter plates (liquid pinning to/from)
• Supported agar pinning densities: 96, 384, 1536 and 6144 colonies per plate
• Documented ultra‑high‑density capacity: published use‑case plating tens of thousands of colonies on a single plate
• Transfer efficiency: reported >99% across tested organisms (examples: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coli, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, filamentous fungi)
• Organisms supported: yeast, fungi, bacteria, algae
• Key features: agar sensing, configurable pinning head movements, wet/dry mixing options, visual software prompts
• Software: intuitive GUI with three basic programs and custom protocol creation
• Typical applications: library construction/maintenance, SGA, functional and chemical genetic screens, high‑throughput streaking, mating and replicate workflows