replica plating

[PLUYKX at UMIAMI.IR.MIAMI.EDU]

From:	GABLES::PLUYKX        5-JUL-1995 12:06:24.10
To:	IN%"eggen at hermes.eawag.ch"
CC:	PLUYKX
Subj:	RE: replica plating

Dear Rik:        I have just tried (for the first time) using the "stamp
device" (as you called it) for transferring clones from a 96-well plate to agar
plates.  It worked very well.  (I bought an 8x6 "replicator" from Sigma
Chemical Company, catalog no. R 2383, although I'm sure several other companies
offer essentially identical devices.)
   To sterilize the device between transfers, I dip the pegs into a Petri dish
containing 95% ethanol, ignite it with a small flame (holding the device
vertically so as not to burn your hand).  When the ethanol has burned off, I
put the device into the 96-well plate, and use a small stirring motion to
suspend the cells in the wells more evenly, and then touch the device to the
surface of an agar plate.  (To transfer the same set of clones to another
plate, you can go back to the same set of wells without sterilizing the device
again.)
   The number of cells transferred each time is somewhat variable, but I found
the procedure quite reliable, and I had no trouble scoring the agar plates.
          Peter Luykx
          Biology Department
          Univ. of Miami
          Coral Gables, Florida 33124