Low binding 100 μm zirconium beads are ideal for disrupting microorganisms, especially bacteria, that are present in low numbers in biological samples. These beads are chemically treated so they bind less solutes liberated from homogenized samples following bead beating. They have been found to be essential for extracting bacterial proteins, particularly from Gram-positive bacteria, resulting in 64% more proteins identified. Other specific applications include protein extraction and digestion of bacteria from mice fecal samples to study human gut microbiome, global mapping of associated proteins of Salmonella cells by mass spectrometry, and RNA extraction of mosquitoes to study feeding behavior, crucial for vector-borne diseases like Zika and dengue.
Both enzyme and PCR-based assays have lower sensitivity when analytes are liberated using untreated beads. Low Binding Beads yield a greater concentration of solutes and provide greater range and linearity, especially in real-time PCR assays.
There are different types of low binding beads available, such as silica (glass) and zirconium, and they come in various sizes to suit different types of samples. Untreated Silica and Zirconium Beads (Zirconium Silicate) have surface chemistries which might bind DNA, RNA, and proteins upon disruption of cells. These beads are chemically altered to eliminate surface charges, which typically bind these molecules upon cell disruption.
Citations
Benson, K.F., Redman, K.A., Carter, S.G., Keller, D., Farmer, S., Endres, J.R. et al. (2012) Probiotic metabolites from Bacillus coagulans GanedenBC30TM support maturation of antigen-presenting cells in vitro. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 18, 1875–1883. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v18.i16.1875 (High molecular weight fraction of metabolite was associated with a reduction in pro-inflammatory cells)
Dreier, M., Meola, M., Berthoud, H., Shani, N., Wechsler, D., & Junier, P. (2022). High-throughput qPCR and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing as complementary methods for the investigation of the cheese microbiota. BMC Microbiology, 22(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-022-02451-y (The integration of HT-qPCR with next-generation sequencing (NGS) from bacterial DNA provides an accurate profile of microbiota present in cheese)
Jové, V., Gong, Z., Hol, F. J. H., Zhao, Z., Sorrells, T. R., Carroll, T., Prakash, M., McBride, C. S., & Vosshall, L. B. (2020). Sensory discrimination of blood and floral nectar by Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes. Neuron, 108(6), 1163-1180.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.019 (The innate ability to recognize blood is crucial for the transmission of vector borne diseases affecting millions worldwide)
Kast, C., & Roetschi, A. (2017). Evaluation of baker’s yeast in honey using a real-time PCR assay. Food Microbiology, 62, 282–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2016.10.025 (The presence of S. cerevisiae in honey could indicate an unwanted addition of sucrose to honey through bee-feeding practices)
Urdaneta, E.C., Vieira-Vieira, C.H., Hick, T. et al. (2019). Purification of cross-linked RNA-protein complexes by phenol-toluol extraction. Nat Commun 10, 990 (2019). https://doi-org.byui.idm.oclc.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08942-3 (Phenol Toluol extraction (PTex) is designed to purify ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) based on their physicochemical properties, without relying on a specific RNA sequence or motif)
Wu, J., Zhu, J., Yin, H., Liu, X., An, M., Pudlo, N. A., Martens, E. C., Chen, G. Y., & Lubman, D. M. (2016). Development of an integrated pipeline for profiling microbial proteins from mouse fecal samples by LC–MS/MS. Journal of Proteome Research, 15(10 pp.3635–3642), 3635–3642. (Improved extraction of proteins for metaproteomic analysis is crucial for understanding the gut microbiome’s role in health and disease)
