use strict;
my $str = 'A17-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240
A18-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240
B19-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240
B20-R-Null-C-3.AT2G41240
A21-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240
A22-R-Transgenic-C-3.AT2G41240';
my $regex = qr/^[^-]*-([^.]+).*/mp;
my $subst = '\\1';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html