Top Agar Newbie

[Michael L. Sullivan]

>I am using AgarOSE, and I let them sit in the coldroom overnite before
>removing.
>
>What concentration of agarose are people using?  (I am using 0.7%)
>

This is the concentration I use.  One thing that I can think of is that not
all agarose is created equally (when I first started in the lab I'm in now,
I suddenly was unable to do routine gel electrophoresis-- I bought new
agarose, and viola!-- everything started working again).  For plaque lifts
I used the same agarose that I use for gel electrophoresis, Gibco Cat#
15510-027 (no affiliation).  I rarely chilled the plates for more than an
hour and I never had trouble with the top agarose peeling off.  I did
always also make sure that my plates were a few days old before I used
them.  I'm not sure whether this might be a factor also or not.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Michael L. Sullivan, Ph.D

U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center
1925 Linden Drive West
Madison WI, 53706

(608) 264-5144 Phone
(608) 264)-5147 Fax


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