Shiv

We have successfully embedded wheat straw in Spurr resin, LR White may be
better although often it doesn't bind to hydrophobic surfaces so might be a
problem. For really dense material like Miscanthus we have never had any
success.

I suggest two approaches:
1/ If you can collect fresh stems they should be much easier to section
(without embedding) than dried material which has become permanently
hornified.
2/ If you have to work with dried material then try storing in formalin
aceto alcohol for long periods (months). For some materials this results in
some softening but it does take a long time (6-12 months). This will also
work better if you start with fresh rather than dried material.

If you do manage to embed the stem it will likely be silicified so you will
go through a lot of glass knives !).

Regards
Dr Lloyd Donaldson - Senior Scientist
SCION - Next generation biomaterials
Te Papa Tipu Innovation Park, 49 Sala Street
Private Bag 3020, ROTORUA, New Zealand
DDI 64 7 343 5581
Fax 64 7 343 5507
email [log in to unmask]


>>
Hi all, I have never cut hard woody grass stems (similar strength as small
dried bamboo stem). One of our client wish to section and stain them and I
have tried couple of ways soak and cryo embedding, cook (pressure cook) and
mounting in paraffin (based on a book chapter), but it seems not working
well. I am about to try embedding in hard polymer such as LR white or
Lowacryl, is there any other method proven to be useful than these
approaches.

Sorry this is not a confocal question.

Thanking you in advance
Shiv



Mayandi Sivaguru, PhD, PhD
Microscopy Facility Manager
8, Institute for Genomic Biology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1206 West Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801 USA

Office: 217.333.1214
Fax: 217.244.2496
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http://core.igb.uiuc.edu