| item | method | used for |
| pulled glass- pipettes |
As Macrostomum
are generally quite small, we pull the normal pasteur-pipettes to obtain a smaller aperture. You need a burner and (of course) the pipettes. Simply hold the pipette with both hands, at the base and the tip. Place the thin part of pipette, at about one centimeter from the start of the neck, over the flame, rotating it until it softens (CAREFULLY: HOT GLASS LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME AS COLD GLASS!) Quickly remove from the flame while pulling both hands appart. Then break the extended part as desired. After some trials, you'll get a very fine pipette. |
worm handling |
| blunt glass- pipettes |
To deal with algae on agar, a blunt glass-pipette is very helpful. You need a burner and (of course) a pipette (preferably long enough to reach the agar in the tubes). Place the tip of the pipette over the flame (CAREFULLY: HOT GLASS LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME AS COLD GLASS!) and allow about 1/2 cm of the glass to curve down (not much! try out several angles). The optimal angle depends on the cultures, and on the hand. Check that the tip is blunt, i.e. closed and round, and quickly flame again if necessary. |
algae cultures |
| siliconised pipette-tips |
Macrostomum lignano likes to stick on surfaces, and seems particularly fond of the inner side of pipettes. We thus siliconise them with Sigmacote®. To do so, we dip the pipette-tips in the Sigmacote, absorb the maximum quantity, and release it back to the bottle. The tips are then allowed to dry overnight, and washed with distilled water. If you're using glass pipettes, siliconising them is also very helpful |
worm handling |
| algae scraper | An "algae scraper" is simply a broad piece of thick, flexible plastic that can be comfortably manipulated with the fingers to scrape algae off the petri-dishes. We use a rectangular piece of discarded overhead, 2.5x4 cm. |
algae solutions |
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last uptaded: 29.02.2008