Improved histological fixation of gelatinous marine invertebrates.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Gelatinous zooplankton can be difficult to preserve morphologically due to unique physical properties of their cellular and acellular components. The relatively large volume of mesoglea leads to distortion of the delicate morphology and poor sample integrity in specimens prepared with standard aldehyde or alcohol fixation techniques. Similar challenges have made it difficult to extend standard laboratory methods such as in situ hybridization to larger juvenile ctenophores, hampering studies of late development.

Results

We have found that a household water repellant glass treatment product commonly used in laboratories, Rain-X®, alone or in combination with standard aldehyde fixatives, greatly improves morphological preservation of such delicate samples. We present

SUBMITTER: Mitchell DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8196456 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature