Zirconium beads, 1.4 mm, are useful for bead beating insects and small tissue samples to release nucleic acids and proteins.  These acid-washed zirconium beads are suitable for homogenizing bacterial cells and insects to mice and organ tissues.  To assess the number of colony forming units of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 1.4 mm zirconium beads were used to disperse bacterial cells from colonies for phenazine transport studies.  In mouse tissues, the use of the beads increased quantification of antisense oligonucleotide levels, and biodistribution experiments to measure the fluorescence in the tissue homogenates at different time points post-injection to determine the localization and retention tracer molecules. Beads were also used to improve DNA yield from whitefly homogenization, which provided insights into the complex dynamics of cassava virus transmission.

Beads are ready-to-use, having been treated with acidified water to remove fine particles, dust, and other impurities typically found in untreated beads, and further baked to drive off organic impurities. This makes them suitable for a variety of laboratory applications, including those that require a high degree of purity in the homogenization process. Zirconium is denser than silica, yet less expensive than stainless steel.

Citations

Jirka, S. M. G.; Tanganyika-de Winter, C. L.; Boertje-van der Meulen, J. W.; van Putten, M.; Hiller, M.; Vermue, R.; de Visser, P. C.; Aartsma-Rus, A. (2015).   Evaluation of 2’-Deoxy-2’-Fluoro Antisense Oligonucleotides for Exon Skipping in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids, 4, e265. https://doi.org/10.1038/mtna.2015.39 (2’-deoxy-2’-fluoro (2F) antisense oligonucleotides were effective in enhancing exon skipping in cell and animal models of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy)  

Kennedy, G. G., Sharpee, W., Jacobson, A. L., Wambugu, M., Mware, B., & Hanley-Bowdoin, L. (2023). Genome segment ratios change during whitefly transmission of two bipartite cassava mosaic begomoviruses. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37278-8 (The acquisition of African cassava mosaic virus segments by whiteflies does not reflect their relative titers in the source plant as it does for East African cassava mosaic Cameroon virus) 

Rohner, N. A.; Thomas, S. N. (2017). Flexible macromolecule versus rigid particle retention in the injected skin and accumulation in draining lymph nodes are differentially influenced by hydrodynamic size. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 3 (2), 153–159. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00438 (The retention of substances in the skin post-injection and their eventual gathering in the lymph nodes are greatly influenced by size and flexibility)   

Sakhtah, H., Koyama, L., Zhang, Y., Morales, D. K., Fields, B. L., Price-Whelan, A., Hogan, D. A., Shepard, K., & Dietrich, L. E. P. (2016). The Pseudomonas aeruginosa efflux pump MexGHI-OpmD transports a natural phenazine that controls gene expression and biofilm development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(25), E3538–E3547. (The discovery of 5-Me-PCA, a compound transported by the MexGHI-OpmD pump, is vital for triggering the pump’s activity and is essential for the proper development of biofilms in bacteria)