Dear Marcel..
For tough critters I have had luck with two different methods..
1. Using dry ice. Either in a mortar or in an electric coffee bean grinder. Add the frozen tissue (-20 or -80) and small pieces of dry ice and grind. It is important to keep the tissue frozen.
2. using liquid nitrogen - same idea as above, only you have to use the mortar as I wouldn't recommend using liquid N2 in an electric grinder. Keeping the tissue frozen in liquid N2 renders it very brittle and much easier to grind.
Good luck
George
Dr. George I. Matsumoto
Senior Education and Research Specialist
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
7700 Sandholdt Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
831 775 1757 (phone)
831 775 1620 (fax)
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http://www.mbari.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Marcel Jaspars [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 6:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Homogenisation
Dear Tunicata Members
We are trying to homogenise several ascidians to measure their metal content and also extract total genomic DNA.
The samples we have are freshly frozen at -20degC and we tried mortar and pestle, hand-held electric homogeniser, and pulsifier techniques. None of these work terribly well because the tunic will not easily homogenise.
Any advice/experience with this matter would be appreciated.
Cheers
Marcel
Professor Marcel Jaspars
Marine Natural Products Laboratory
Department of Chemistry
University of Aberdeen
Old Aberdeen, AB24 3UE
Scotland, UK
Phone: +44 1224 272 895
Fax: +44 1224 272 921
Email: [log in to unmask]
www: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/chemistry/research/mj/mj.hti
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