On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 5:44 PM, John Griessen <
jo...@industromatic.com> wrote:
> On 06/18/2013 06:33 PM, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
>>
>> Well if you're talking building equipment, it would more work upfront,
>> but probably be higher efficiency for transformation and likely a lot
>> easier to shoot DNA ballistically.
>
>
> Is it lower cost and reliable though? What are the cleanup steps needed
> after a blast?
Not sure exactly, Patrik has posted some jove tutorials/videos, and
someone made a DIY gene gun and got onion cells to glow:
http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/diybio/r%C3%BCdiger-trojok-gene-gun.pdf
>
> Can one separate the spatter of the blast from the gun b closing a door?
Probably, it's an air gun firing 1 micron gold particles coated with
DNA (add wet DNA solution, then dry, then shoot)
>
> Sounds like lots of engineering.
Maybe not, Sebastian posted this to me (maybe accidentally, you also
only mailed me just now) which sounds MUCH more involved and finicky.
There are pros and cons to both routes I'm sure, maybe one method is
better for the plant genome where the other targets the chloroplast
(have you heard that chloroplasts and mitochondria are the result of
endosymbiosis long long ago... i.e. a small cell living in a big
cell).
>
> PEG sounds like another process add-on to my
> incubator/mild-centrifuge/liquid-handling/air-PCR-performing/OD-measuring
> 15cm x 20cm x 10cm robot idea.
Maybe, see below. I would think that with enough energy, you could
make both devices and have two separate and complementary products.
On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 5:53 PM, Sebastian Cocioba <
scoc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The mathur article is a great method for transformation but the steps
> to achieve happy protoplasts is much more difficult. The goal is to
> obtain clean, healthy cells and the best way so far is by ficoll or
> sucrose gradient centrifugation. The catch is the need for a swing out
> centrifuge so the protoplast separate into clear bands at the interface
> of a two or three step gradient. Its quite difficult to alter the
> density of a solution while maintaining isoosmotic conditions. Ficoll
> is a great solution but its way too expensive per rxn. Any sucrose
> polymer that won't be taken up or is metabolically inert would work.
How about any of the sugar alcohols, or maybe short-branches
polysaccharides, gums?
> Sung won Lim and I have been brainstorming on this topic for a while
> now and are in the process of testing different methods. Just keeping
> these guys alive is proving to be the fundamental problem. I can see
> why people have all but abandoned the technique. Devising a good
> protocol would be a great boon for DIY plant bio so I see it as a
> worthwhile endeavor. Nathan, could you elaborate on your work? How was
> the handling of that particular organism similar? Thanks.
Well for hybridoma production we took mouse spleen and rinsed it of
blood, ground it up and strained out the gristle/matrix, counted the
ratio of B cells to macrophages, then added PEG and the appropriate
amount of cancerous B-cells that were grown in culture. Slowly the
solution was mixed, and the PEG encouraged cell fusion, successful
hybridomas can be selected for using a gene defect in the cancerous
cell line, and the fact that non-cancerous B cells will naturally die
pretty fast in cell culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybridoma_technology
I mention it being similar because during PEG treatment, the cells are
quite unstable, so if you jostle them too much or stir the solution
too vigorously you simply break the cells open. I've had the same
experience with spheroplast preparation for transformations in
bacteria (either e.coli or b.subtilis, can't remember), mix too
hard/fast and you kill your little buddies.
--
-Nathan