Degassing plant tissues for better processing/mounting the easy way

[mrsonchus]

Hi all, some of you may have seen my newly posted thread starting an adventure to ultimately produce some root-tip mitosis and anatomy slides. This thread is just a little video to show how to remove the air from within tissues that 'need a little help' to fully infiltrate with liquid, be it an alcohol dehydrant, water-mount or even permanent mountant, to ensure no post-mount air bubble will appear.

In this example one of the sprouted seed types of 'the other thread' needed the application the release of a vacuum to aid air removal as the tissues were being placed into fixative at the very start of the process....



If you need any details, just let me know - this technique is great for tissue that is only to be water-mounted temporarily too!

The cheap car brake bleeding pump seen in the video was suggested by another forum member - up until then I had been using a big syringe and fish-tank airline valves - which worked fine but not as efficiently as this method!

John B.

[steviem]

Hi, another possible solution for you is to use a fishermans "pellet pump" readily available on ebay-about £15

[billbillt]

Hi, another possible solution for you is to use a fishermans "pellet pump" readily available on ebay-about £15

I believe Mr. John B. uses a device such as this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bstean-100ml-La ... 1438.l2649


Regards,
BillT

[mrsonchus]

Aha! Now, that was the v1; I now use a car brake-bleeding pump which has an open/closed valve and a guage built in - even enables a quantified vacuum to be applied as an aid to consistency.

This is the one I now use - this type of device was recommended to me by someone here in the forum, trouble is I forget who it was.

This is about £12 from e-bay and works perfectly....

vacuum.jpg (14.67 KiB) Viewed 3566 times

John B

[billbillt]

Thanks for the update, my friend!....

BillT

[Moose]

I love it. I have worked in the microscopy field for almost 40 years. I have seen attachments, devices, etc cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. It is so nice to see someone come up with simple attachments to the job of expensive equipment.