Difference between revisions of "Team:Rheda Bielefeld/Methods"

For our experiments with pollen, we have used two methods. The first method was using trypsin and a ribolyser. Trypsin is an enzyme mostly found in the digestive system of many animals and can hydrolyze proteins. We have used it here in the hope that the trypsin would hydrolyze the proteins in the pollen´s outer wall and therefore making the pollen break. The Ribolyser is made up from many little balls of ceramics and is used to homogenize biological samples. It works easily: you put a sample into the ribolyser and shake it well, best with a mechanical shaker. By shaking it, the little ceramic balls fly around in the container and by crashing into the sample, a lot of damage can be done to your biological sample. A negative side effect of using the ribolyser is that a lot of heat is produced when the balls fly around. We used the ribolyser to break the pollens wall with both heat and the mechanical damage done. Another way we tried to break open the wall of a pollen was by using liquid nitrogen. When you put liquid nitrogen onto cells, they break because all liquids touching that extremely cold substance freeze and eventually break.<br/> <br/>