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Equipment

A range of molecular, physiological, and analytical techniques are established in our lab. In the following, you can find an overview of the equipment available. If you are interested in a collaboration, please feel free to contact us.

Culture facilities

• fully air-conditioned greenhouse space;
• Cabinets for plants and plant tissue cultures: two Conviron PGCflex, two Percival AR-75HIL, Conviron ATC-26, Vötsch VB-1014, Percival E-30B, Percival CU-36/4, Conviron Adaptis A-1000 TC;
• automatic titrators to control solution pH of hydroponic cultures;
• various shaking incubators and cabinets for culture of bacteria and yeast;
• CO₂ incubator for culture of mammalian cells.

Molecular biology and protein biochemistry

• PCR thermocyclers, gel chambers and gel documentation system for DNA and RNA work;
• four-channel realtime PCR machine (Eppendorf Realplex S4) for gene expression analysis;
• Nanodrop ND-2000c microliter spectrometer for nucleic acid quantification;
• hybridizing oven (UVP HB-1000);
• SDS-PAGE and Western blotting facilities for protein characterization.

Luminescence

• PC-controlled tube luminometers (Berthold Detection Systems Sirius-1 and FB-12) for luminometric assays;
• ultra-sensitive high-resolution photon-counting camera system (Photek HRPCS-4) fitted to dark box with Peltier heated/cooled stage for macroscopic imaging of luminescence.
  Both systems are mainly used for the detection of calcium signals by aequorin luminescence. The photon-counting camera is also suitable for HRP-based Western blot analysis.

Microscopy and imaging

• upright fluorescence microscope (Zeiss Axioskop) with high-resolution colour camera (Zeiss Axiocam HRc);
• inverse fluorescence microscope (Zeiss Axiovert 40) with colour camera (Zeiss Axiocam MRc);
• fluorescence stereomicroscope (Zeiss SteREO Discovery V.20 with PentaFluar S) with high-performance colour camera (Zeiss Axiocam 506);
• fluorescence zoom microscope (Zeiss Axio Zoom V.16) with ultra-sensitive sCMOS camera (Hamamatsu ORCA-Flash 4.0 V3);
• dissecting stereomicroscope (Zeiss Stemi SV11);
• Zeiss CellObserver HS system, comprising a Zeiss AxioObserver D1 motorised microscope, Colibri LED and HXP 120 light sources, and  DualCam twin-camera port for high-speed ratio imaging of living cells;
• microscope systems operated by Zeiss ZEN blue software;
• automated perfusion system (AutoMate ValveLink 8.2);
• microtome (Leica RM 2145);
• vibrating microtome (Zeiss Hyrax V.50).

Electrophysiology

• patch clamp amplifier (Axopatch 200B-2) with data acquisition system (Digidata 1440 A) and electrophysiology software (pCLAMP10);
• oscilloscope (Textronix TDS2012B);
• micromanipulator (Eppendorf 5171) attached to inverse fluorescence microscope (Zeiss Axiovert 135);
• pipette puller (Sutter P-97) and coating/polishing microforge (ALA CPM-2).

Analytical techniques

• C/N analyzer (Vario EL, Elementar) coupled to 15N spectrometer (NOI 7) for the quantification of C, N, and 15N;
• Büchi destillation unit for total N determination;
• osmometer (Gonotec Osmomat 030) for determination of osmotic potentials;
• UV/Vis spectrophotometer (Analytic Jena Specord 200);
• microplate absorbance reader (BioRad benchmark);
• multimode microplate reader for luminescence, fluorescence, and absorbance (Berthold Mithras LB 940);
• ICP-OES (HORIBA Jobin-Yvon Ultima-2), operated by the Soil Science laboratory;
• MP-AES (Agilent 4201)
• HPLC system (Merck-Hitachi L-7000 series) fitted with diode array, fluorescence and conductivity detectors;
• MilliQ water purification systems.

Stomatal conductance, leaf turgor, chlorophyll, and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements

• porometer (Delta-T Devices AP-4);
• magnetic leaf turgor pressure probe (ZIM Plant Technology);
• infrared thermal camera (FLIR T650sc);
• chlorophyll meter(Minolta SPAD-502Plus);
• portable chlorophyll fluorescence analyser (Hansatech Handy-PEA);
• portable PAM fluometer (PSI Fluorpen FP100 PSI);
• chlorophyll fluorescence imaging system (Walz IMAGING-PAM Maxi).

Sample preparation

• laboratory thresher (Wintersteiger LD-180);
  
• high-throughput tissue homogenizer and cell lyser (SPEX Geno/Grinder 2010);
• disk mill (Retsch RS 100);
• high pressure microwave digestion unit (CEM MARS5Xpress) for acid digestion of samples;
• furnace for sample combustion;
• small scale (Christ Alpha 1-4) and large scale (Christ Beta 1-8 K) freeze-dryers;
• vacuum concentrator (Christ RVC2-18 CDplus HCl);
• superspeed centrifuge (Beckmann Avanti J-25) with various rotors.

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