Flame Sterilization

NOTE: The subsampling procedures are the same for manual extraction and robotic extraction in BIO.


 * 1) Make sure that the Matrix Box and the lysis plate are aligned the same way (so that if A1 is in the top left corner of the Box, it is also in the top left corner of the plate). Check it again, just to make sure. Write “Lysed” on the Matrix Box.
 * 2) There is a small tool that looks like an Allen key that is used to open the top on the tubes that come in the Matrix Box.
 * 3) Light the lighter and then turn on the gas slowly for the Bunsen burner and light it, so that there is a small blue flame.
 * 4) Remove the first cap-strip row (1) from the lysis plate, and place it on a Kim Wipe. Take out the first tube (H1), and place it in a tube rack. Open the top. Take two forceps and dip them in ethanol (shaking off any excess) and put them in the flame for a few seconds to burn off the ethanol.
 * 5) Pull out the tissue and remove a piece of it (about a 2-3mm long piece of insect leg) and place it in the correct well in the lysis plate. Make sure to sterilize the forceps between each sample with ethanol and flame. Put each tube back in its proper place in the Matrix Box before you get the next one.
 * 6) Put the cap-strips back on as you go. The caps come in rows of eight, and one tab says A and the other says H, this corresponds to the A and H on the plate.
 * 7) Scan the Lysis plate onto LIMS, and then place it in the incubator in BIO at 56 oC over night (ideally for no less than 12 hours, but at the very least 8 hours will be enough).
 * 8) Put the Matrix Box in the freezer.

Return to Barcoding in the Hanner Lab Wiki.

Next you have to extract the DNA with either the Robotic DNA Extraction in BIO or with Manual Extraction.

Updated April 27 2009