The wells of the Alfx are not compatible with a standard 8 or 12
channel pipettors. If a pippettor existed that could load the Alfx's
wells, then it would not be compatible with the standard 96 well microtitre
dishes.
Alas, this is not a problem that can be solved by making a different
comb, because there is one fixed detector for each lane.
The .3 mm spacers work okay for you for sequencing (full size) gels? I
used to snap an average of one per gel I ran. (Alfx spacers are made of
glass because the laser goes through the gel from the side.) After I ran
out, I went back to the .5 mm spacers. If you use an acrylamide like PAGE+
(from AMERESCO) and .5 mm spacers you can go with a 2:1 buffer gradient
(0.5x TBE in the running buffer, 1x in the gel) and get a gel done in 10-11
hrs. 2 gels a day, if you push it (and we do, usually). Once you get the
kinks worked out you can get gels averaging over 800 bases (upright
sequence = >99% accurate).
Phillip San Miguel
Purdue University
Bennetzen lab
B.Hirst wrote:
> Does anyone use a multichannel pipette for loading the ALFExpress
> sequencer?
> If so which one and with which tips? We use 0.3mm gels, duckbilled tips
> and a single pipette for loading both sequencing and mutation analysis
> gels.
