P.T. Borgia - Department of Medical Microbiology and
Immunology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine,
Springfield IL 62794-9230
I have found a convenient, disposable and inexpensive material
for replica plating colonies of Aspergillus nidulans, A. fumigatus
and E. coli. The material may be useful for other fungi as well.
WypAll wipers (Scott Paper Co., 05701) are a cellulose product
which are more convenient than conventional velveteen pads and
are much less expensive than replica plating materials available
from scientific suppliers. The replicas produced are comparable to
those using velveteen pads. The wipers measure 12.5 x 14.4 inches,
are folded in quarters and 25 are wrapped in a plastic binder. For
replicating large numbers of master plates it is most convenient to
remove the binder, wrap the wipers in aluminum foil, and autoclave
them. For use, the sheets are unfolded taking care to handle only
the outer surface. The sheet is placed with the inner side up on a
standard replica plating block and is secured with the retaining ring.
The pad is moistened by pipetting 2-3 ml of 0.01% Tween-80 evenly
onto the surface. The moist surface minimizes the "scattering" of
spores of certain species such as A. fumigatus. A master plate is
pressed firmly onto the surface and is lifted from one side to "peel"
it from the replicating surface. Several replicas can be made from
each imprint. Following replicating, the sheet is moved to an
unused area for additional master plates. Each sheet can be used to
replicate as many as nine 100 mm Petri dishes. Alternatively, if
only a few plates are to be replicated, the sheets can be cut into
quarters, wrapped, autoclaved and used individually. Used sheets
are discarded thus avoiding the washing, drying and wrapping
necessary for velveteen pads.
J. Irelan and E.U. Selker - Institute of Molecular Biology, University
of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1229.
We probed colony blots of the Orbach/Sachs cosmid library with
am and cys-3 specific probes. The am probe, derived from pJR3,
hybridized to cosmids G7:2G, G9:10A, G9:12D, X1:5C, X5:2F, and
X6:1B. The am cosmids G7:2G, X5:2F and X6:1B were verifed by
Southern blotting, and X5:2F was verified by transformation. The
cys-3 probe, derived from pJP6, hybridized to cosmids G8:1G,
G12:1E, and X1:7H. All three cys-3 cosmids were verified by
Southern blotting and G12:1E was verified by transformation.
Previously reported putative new species is a subgroup of
Neurospora sitophila
Barbara C. Turner and Ann Fairfield - Department of Biological
Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020
The group of isolates from nature tentatively identified as a new
species, called N. celata, have been found to be N. sitophila isolates
that will not cross or even show a rudimentary mating reaction on
fully fertile N. sitophila testers when sucrose is used as a carbon
source in the synthetic crossing medium. They were found to cross
to N. sitophila cultures, both as fertilizing parent and as
protoperithecial parent, when filter paper was used as the carbon
source. See note by Fairfield and Turner 1993 Fungal Genet.
Newsl. 40:30-31.