Due to the large number of precise replication steps in SGA analysis, robots are widely used to perform the colony manipulations. There are a few systems specifically designed for SGA analysis - for example the Singer RoToR robot, which greatly decrease the time to analyse a query gene. Generally these have a series of pins which are used to transfer cells to and from plates, with one system utilizing disposable pads of pins to eliminate washing cycles. Computer programs can be used to analyze the colony sizes from images of the plates thus automating the SGA scoring and chemical-genetics profiling.
