In article <3ivkks$csk at news.service.uci.edu>, qnguyen at darwin.bio.uci.edu says:
>> Dear Netters,
>>It seems that there is some kind of seasonal variation in the expression potency of Xenopus oocytes
>expressed with brain mRNA. Since my oocytes haven't been expressing well over the past several
>weeks, I wonder if I can blame the cells (instead of me)... The expression of GABAA receptors is
>particularly poor.
>>I'd like to know if there are people currently facing the same problem. If not, could you mention the
>name of your Xenopus supplier?
>> Thanks for your replies.
> Quoc Thang Nguyen
>>
Can't get GABA-A receptors to express in oocytes, despite that sunny California weather?
I think you can definitely blame the eggs. We also sometimes have problems getting GABA
receptors to express, although the eggs seem to be behaving themselves in Denver at least
for now. A while back, another postdoc and I had a drought that lasted about a month.
All of a sudden it was over and everything was fine. We had no idea why the eggs refused
to express GABA-A receptors for a while and why they suddenly started up again. Incidentally,
this was with cDNAs not mRNA. I think it's even harder getting mRNA to express, although
a person in our lab has gotten good responses from spinal cord GABA-A mRNAs in the last
couple of days. I'd suggest another batch of RNA (and eggs).
We have also found that the failure to express one receptor doesn't mean others won't express.
When we had our GABA-A drought, kainate receptors expressed normally.
Currently our frog supplier is Xenopus.
Best of luck and I'm sure you'll get expression (eventually).
A fellow sufferer,
John Mihic
