Our new e-mail system doesn't seem to have a way to determine the
address of the original sender, so I'll send this to the list.
>Lake Brantley High School is participating in the joint
>Ukraine-NASA CUE
....
>1. The homogenization medium is NaCl, Tris, EDTA, BSA, and
> MeSH. What is MeSH? Can it be purchased from Sigma
> Chemical Co?
I'm not certain of this, but one possibility for MeSH would be
beta-mercaptoethanol, also called 2-mercaptoethanol or 2-
hydroxyethylmercaptan. It is a common ingredient of buffers used in
nucleic acid isolation. "SH" is often used in abbreviations for this
compound, because it contains a sulfhydryl (SH) group. The formula
is HS-CH2-CH2-OH. It would be listed under "M" in the Sigma
catalog. The concentrated solution should only be opened in a fume
hood!
By the way - I hope this medium is for homogenizing the chloroplasts
after they have been isolated, not for homogenizing the plant material
to isolate the chloroplasts. There doesn't seem to be any osmoticum
(e.g. sucrose or mannitol) to prevent the chloroplasts from bursting.
>2. Proteins and residual genomic DNA is precipitated with KAc.
> What is KAc? Does Sigma carry it?
The KAc used in DNA precipitation is potassium acetate. Yes, Sigma
should have it.
Kathy Schmid (schmid at butler.edu)
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Butler University
4600 Sunset Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46208
