Glass Beads to plate bacteria transformation - (May/05/2008 )

Hi

I would like to order some glass beads to plate bacteria transformation. Can anyone please tell me which company would have it and which size would be good to use? and the protocol if available. Thanks so much.

I get beads from Thermo Fisher (11-312B) or Sigma-Aldrich (G1145).
Transfer the beads to 50 mL Falcon tubes.
Rinse beads 4 or 5 times with MQ-water. Drain off as much water as possible.
Autoclave.
Drain off residual water. Dry in laminar flow hood or just leave the lids loose until the water evaporates off.

It is significantly cheaper to prepare your own beads rather than buying them ready-to-go.

Shake out 8 - 15 beads onto agar plate (exact number doesn't matter). Inoculate with cells. Shake plates north-south and east-west rather than circularly. When liquid is absorbed, transfer beads to biohazard waste container.

We use the 4mm glass beads from Fisher as well. But we keep them in 100mL glass bottles. After using some beads to plate the bacteria, we collect them into a small beaker. When the bottle is empty/beaker is full, just rinse well and autoclave in the glass bottle again. We have not had any contamination issues.