Many research papers cite 200 μm low binding zirconium beads for disrupting microbial samples from freshwater and marine environments, as well as toxic and urban environments.  The beads are useful for lysing microorganisms from samples where salinity, organic pollutants, dissolved organic matter and trace metals may interfere with isolation processes.  Additionally, zirconium beads are tougher than silica, less expensive than stainless steel, and inert in most solutions, making them suitable for disrupting bacteria, archaea, algae, and small yeasts.

These Low Binding Beads are chemically treated so they bind less solutes liberated from homogenized samples, which is particularly useful in applications where non-specific binding can interfere with the analysis, such as in PCR-based assays.  Alternatively, untreated Silica and Zirconium Beads (Zirconium Silicate) have surface chemistries that can bind DNA, RNA, and proteins upon disruption of cells. 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.

Citations

Alneberg, J., Sundh, J., Bennke, C. et al. BARM and BalticMicrobeDB, a reference metagenome and interface to meta-omic data for the Baltic Sea. Sci Data 5, 180146 (2018). https://doi-org.byui.idm.oclc.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.146 (BARM and BalticMicrobeDB represent significant advancements in meta-omic research, offering a streamlined approach to studying the complex microbial life in one of the world’s largest brackish water bodies)

Debeljak, P., Toulza, E., Beier, S., Blain, S., and Obernosterer, I. (2019). Microbial iron metabolism as revealed by gene expression profiles in contrasted Southern Ocean regimes. Environmental Microbiology, 21(7), 2360–2374. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14621(Major differences exist in the contribution of prokaryotic groups at different taxonomic levels to transcripts encoding Fe-uptake mechanisms, intracellular Fe storage, and Fe-related pathways in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle)

Eissler, Y., Gálvez, M., Dorador, C., Hengst, M., and Molina, V. (2018). Active microbiome structure and its association with environmental factors and viruses at different aquatic sites of a high‐altitude wetland. MicrobiologyOpen, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.667 (Ponds exhibited a greater microbial diversity and complexity, due to the presence of microbial mats, than other water sources or lagoon)

Huang, Q., Briggs, B. R., Dong, H., Jiang, H., Wu, G., Edwardson, C. F., De Vlaminck, I., and Quake, S. R. (2014). Taxonomic and functional diversity provides insight into microbial pathways and stress responses in the saline Qinghai Lake, China. PloS One, 9(11), e111681. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111681 (Microbial DNA and RNA extraction to study diversity can influence ecosystems functions in response to environmental changes)

John, D. E., López-Díaz, J. M., Cabrera, A., Santiago, N. A., Corredor, J. E., Bronk, D. A., and Paul, J. H. (2011). A day in the life in the dynamic marine environment: how nutrients shape diel patterns of phytoplankton photosynthesis and carbon fixation gene expression in the Mississippi and Orinoco River plumes. Hydrobiologia, 679(1), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0862-6 (Environmental conditions influence the temporal connection between the daily transcription of Rubisco genes and the photosynthetic capacity among phytoplankton) 

Karlsson, C. M. G., Cerro, G. E., Lundin, D., Karlsson, C., Vila, C. M., and Pinhassi, J. (2019). Direct effects of organic pollutants on the growth and gene expression of the Baltic Sea model bacterium Rheinheimera sp. BAL341. Microbial Biotechnology, 12(5), 892. (Exposure to chemicals reduced production levels of bacteria and caused significant changes to stress response and fatty acid metabolism)

Molina, V., Dorador, C., Fernandez, C., Bristow, L., Eissler, Y., Hengst, M., Hernandez, K., Olsen, L. M., Harrod, C., Marchant, F., Anguita, C., and Cornejo, M. (2018). The activity of nitrifying microorganisms in a high-altitude Andean wetland. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94(6), 1c. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiy062 (Salinity and ammonium levels significantly influence the activity of nitrifying communities, which are more active at low-salinity sites but remain persistent in saltier evaporitic areas when ammonium is available)

Numberger, D., Zoccarato, L., Woodhouse, J., Ganzert, L., Sauer, S., Márquez, J. R. G., Domisch, S., Grossart, H.-P., and Greenwood, A. D. (2022). Urbanization promotes specific bacteria in freshwater microbiomes including potential pathogens. Science of the Total Environment, 845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157321 (Urban environments favors potentially harmful bacteria such as Clostridium, Neisseria, Streptococcus, Yersinia, and the toxic cyanobacterial genus Microcystis posing health risks)

Osbeck, C. M. G., Lundin, D., Karlsson, C., Teikari, J. E., Moran, M. A., and Pinhassi, J. (2022). Divergent gene expression responses in two Baltic Sea heterotrophic model bacteria to dinoflagellate dissolved organic matter. PLoS ONE, 17(11), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243406 (RNA extraction and sequencing of seawater samples lead pronounced differences in growth and metabolic pathways when exposed to dinoflagellate dissolved organic matter)

Zárate, A., Molina, V., Valdés, J., Icaza, G., Vega, S. E., Castillo, A., Ugalde, J. A., and Dorador, C. (2023). Spatial co-occurrence patterns of benthic microbial assemblage in response to trace metals in the Atacama Desert Coastline. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1020491 (The microbial assemblages’ features were linked to specific environments associated with Cu and Fe fractions)