title: Chemical lysis of cyanobacteria.
abstract: We have developed a mixture of enzymes and chemicals that completely lyse cyanobacteria. Since the treatment involves only readily-available chemicals and simple proteins that degrade the components of the cyanobacterial cell wall, it can easily be used in high-throughput applications requiring lysis for subsequent intracellular measurements. Our lysis technique consistently enables complete lysis of several different cyanobacterial strains, and we demonstrated that DNA, mRNA, and proteins are preserved in the lysates. Chemical lysis can be superior to existing techniques because of its convenience, reliability, and amenability to a variety of downstream applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.
authors.forename: Kunal K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.
authors.forename: Niklaus H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Evitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA ; Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Swartz