"Cellogel" alternatives

[Ian A. Boussy]

Michelle,

You might want to try the Helena Labs cellulose acetate plates system. I 
haven't used it recently, but many labs do. Dr. Simon Easteal, now in 
the John Curtin School of Medical Research (ANU, Canberra), and I 
published our recipes for isozyme work with the Helena system, with an 
agar overlay to contain the enzymatic reaction which allows small 
quantities of reagents to yield nice results. The reference is:
  Easteal & Boussy. 1987. A sensitive and efficient isoenzyme technique 
for small arthropods and other invertebrates. Bull. Ent. Res. 
77:407-415.

Dr. Paul Hebert (U of Windsor, Windsor, CA) has used the Helena system 
extensively (after Simon showed him how) on Daphnia, and has written a 
nice instruction book for Helena, which they will probably send to you 
if you ask nicely. Contact them at:
  Helena Laboratories
  PO Box 752
  Beaumont, Texas 77704, USA     tel. (713) 842-3714

If you look up our paper, you'll be frustrated if you try to find a 
source of the organic buffer that we liked (based on N-(3 aminopropyl) 
diethanol amine). The amine used to be available from Aldrich, but they 
stopped producing it some years ago. Perhaps other organic buffers would 
work almost as well.  Good luck.