hubei university

3 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Biochemistry

Preparation of High-Temperature Sample Grids for Cryo-EM

Yuan-Chih Chang^1,2, Chin-Yu Chen^3,4, Ming-Daw Tsai^1,5

¹Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, ²Academia Sinica Cryo-EM Facility, Academia Sinica, ³Department of Life Sciences, National Central University, ⁴Hubei University, ⁵Institute of Biochemical Sciences, National Taiwan University

This paper provides a detailed protocol for preparing sample grids at temperatures as high as 70 °C, prior to plunge freezing for cryo-EM experiments.

Biology

Preparing and Rearing Axenic Insects with Tissue Cultured Seedlings for Host-Gut Microbiota Interaction Studies of the Leaf Beetle

Meiqi Ma¹, Pei Liu¹, Jingya Yu², Runhua Han³, Letian Xu¹

¹State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, ²Institute of Plant Protection, Wuhan Institute of Landscape Architecture, ³McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

To obtain an axenic insect, its egg surface is sterilized, and the hatched larva is subsequently reared using axenic leaves. This method provides an efficient way for axenic insect preparation without administering antibiotics or developing an artificial diet, which can also be applied to other leaf-eating insects.

Neuroscience

Using Drosophila Larval Neuromuscular Junction and Muscle Cells to Visualize Microtubule Network

Shengquan Zhang¹, Xiongxiong Wang¹, Zhihua Liu¹, Shan Jin¹, Chuan-Xi Mao¹

¹National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of High-throughput Drug Screening Technology, School of life science, Hubei University

Here, we present a detailed protocol to visualize the microtubule networks in neuromuscular junctions and muscle cells. Combined with the powerful genetic tools of Drosophila melanogaster, this protocol greatly facilitates genetic screening and microtubule-dynamics analysis for the role of microtubule network regulatory proteins in the nervous system.