Zirconium 3.0 mm acid-washed beads are suitable for homogenizing larger tissues where cells are more easily ruptured.  These 3 mm zirconium beads are routinely used on animal (e.g., mouse hypothalamus) and human tissue for nucleic acid extraction and protein isolation.  They’ve been used to study necroptosis (a recently described form of programmed cell death) and to identify targets for treatment of atherosclerosis. In plants, root tissues are homogenized with beads to detect and measure the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi using DNA extracts, thus increasing the efficiency of determining levels of root colonization.  Generally, the beads are useful to roughly homogenize plant and animal tissues for a wide array of applications.

Tougher than silica, less expensive than stainless steel, and inert, zirconium beads are a good choice for bead beating.  Beads are washed with acidified water to remove contaminants found in untreated beads (e.g., dust, microbes, hair), and further baked to remove any organic impurities.

Citations

Chiou, S., Al-Ani, A. H., Pan, Y., Patel, K. M., Kong, I. Y., Whitehead, L. W., Light, A., Young, S. N., Barrios, M., Sargeant, C., Rajasekhar, P., Zhu, L., Hempel, A., Lin, A., Rickard, J. A., Hall, C., Gangatirkar, P., Yip, R. K., Cawthorne, W., . . . Samson, A. L. (2024). An immunohistochemical atlas of necroptotic pathway expression. EMBO Molecular Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-024-00074-6 (Automated immunohistochemistry protocols are available to detect core necroptosis regulators such as Caspase-8, RIPK1, RIPK3, and MLKL in formalin-fixed mouse and human tissues)    

Heller, W. P., & Carrara, J. E. (2022). Multiplex qPCR assays to distinguish individual species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from roots and soil. Mycorrhiza, 32(2 pp.155–164), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-022-01069-2 (Multiplex real-time PCR assays were developed to target the glomalin genes of 11 different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species commonly found in temperate agricultural soils)

Koshko, L., Scofield, S., Debarba, L., Stilgenbauer, L., Fakhoury, P., Jayarathne, H., Perez-Mojica, J. E., Griggs, E., Lempradl, A., & Sadagurski, M. (2023). Prenatal benzene exposure in mice alters offspring hypothalamic development predisposing to metabolic disease in later life. Chemosphere, 2023 Apr. 19, 138738-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138738 (Sex-specific changes were observed in the hypothalamus of male mice offspring, with alterations in genes related to metabolic regulation, inflammation, and neurodevelopment)

Nehme, A.; Kobeissy, F.; Zhao, J.; Zhu, R.; Feugier, P.; Mechref, Y.; Zibara, K. Functional Pathways Associated with Human Carotid Atheroma: A Proteomics Analysis. Hypertension Research 2019, 42 (3), 362. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41440-018-0192-4 (High-throughput mass spectrometry was used to identify proteins that are differentially expressed between early and advanced atherosclerotic lesions)