Protein extracts from embryos



embryo collection


  • collect embryos on apple juice plates, e. g. 0-4h
  • cover embryos on the plate with Klorix and incubate for one to two minutes to remove the chorion
  • pour the Klorix with the embryos through a net to collect the embryos
  • wash the plate with water and pour the water with embryos through the net
  • repeat washing with water for several times
  • wash the collected embryos in the met with water, dip on a paper towel to remove excess liquid
  •  transfer embryos with a small brush into an Eppi tube whose weight was noted before
  • determine weight of the embryos, briefly spin to collect embryos on the bottom, 1 mg corresponds to 100 Embryos (ref. Ashburner)
  • freeze in liquid nitrogen and store the tube at -80ºC

total extract:


  • add 2xLaemmli buffer (optional with 8M urea), 10 µl per 1 mg/100 embryos
  • sonicate, e. g. 3 x 30 sec.
  • boil 5 min, 100ºC
  • spin 5min
  • store in aliquots at -80ºC
  • load 3 µl (=30 embryos) per lane

soluable and nuclear extract


  • transfer frozen embryo pellet or living embryos into a Dounce homogeniser
  • add 50 µl lysis buffer per 1 mg/100 embryos
  • briefly spin the crude lysat
  • extract with an equal volume of trifluortriclhorethan to remove lipids
  • spin 15 min, 14k, 4ºC
  • alternatively spin the extract in the UZ