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LifeGuard ® Plant Culture Vessels and Vented Lids


LifeGuard ®Culture Vessels:

LifeGuard ®culture vessels have been developed for plant culture by tissue culture professionals, and are proven in use in both academic and commercial plant tissue culture laboratories around the world.
The reasons for this acceptance are:


To allow a maximum flexibility on the part of the user, the reusable vessel bottoms and lids are sold separately.
This allows a single bottom to be used for different cultures which may require different lids.

Polycarbonate Vessel Bottoms:
Vessel Sizes:
LifeGuard® polycarbonate vessel bottoms are available in different heights and widths:
See :polycarbonate vessel catalog

The choice of which to use depends on the size of the plants and the amount of agar or liquid medium to be used over the growth period.
The 700 533 and 700 534 models are the most generally used.
Model 700 536 has been used for particularly tall plants and for potato microtubers, which must remain several months on a raft with liquid medium and require a large volume of growth medium.
Models 701 007/010 are optimal for multiple condition academic experiments with small amounts of culture in each vessel.

Autoclavability and Reuse:
The vessels are autoclavable at 121C for 20 minutes. They are easily machine washed and re-used.

Vessel Sealing with Autoclavable Rubber Sealing Bands
Reliably sealing a culture vessel is the most important element in its use.
The lid closure on the 109 mm square vessels is such that two smooth surfaces overlay one another to effect the seal .
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[Figure 1] click to Enlarge

The closed vessel presents only a join where two smooth outer surfaces abutt one another.
To assure that the lid does not move, and that the lid is absolutely sealed, 13mm wide autoclavable rubber sealing bands
[710 530] are used [Figure 2].
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[Figure 2] click to Enlarge

LifeGuard Vented ® Lids

General Advantages of Culture Growth in Vented Vessels:

Improved Plant Quality
It has been known for some time that venting or aeration of a culture vessel has been shown to
reduce vitrification 1,2,3 (hyperhydricity) in plant cultures. However, this is only one of its positive effects.
The composition of the gaseous environment has a direct effect on the plant quality, and has been shown to cause:


Given these morphological effects, it is not surprising that plants elongated and grown in vented vessels show better acclimatization when taken out for hardening.
Thus, Gaba6 has found that venting of melon cultures reduces hardening times by up to 50%.
Gribaudo et. al.7 showed that micropropagated grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Nebbiolo) grown in LifeGuard® vented vessels gave taller plants, with greater leaf area and which showed less wilting if exposed to 70% RH conditions.
Similar effects were also reported by Benzioni8 for jojoba clones (Simmondia chinensis), with Magenta type vessel bottoms and LifeGuard vented lids.

Removing External Sources of Microbiological Contamination
Apart from aeration requirements, growth vessels need to be able to “breathe” aseptically because of the temperature changes which they undergo in the growth room.
During the cycle under the lights, the temperature in the vessel rises, and causes an increase in pressure which can escape through tape, or other mechanical closures.
In the dark part of the cycle, the vessel cools, and a partial vacuum is created inside.
This sucks ambient air into the vessel, together with any contamination present. By having an aseptic vent on the vessel lid, air is able to freely and aseptically move in and out of the vessel, without creating possibilities for contamination to enter.



LifeGuard® Vented Lid Products:
Features and Benefits of LifeGuard® Vented Lids:

All LifeGuard® vented lids are made from hydrophobic microporous membrane films, with well-defined maximum pore sizes. This assures that their gas passage properties are the same in every vent we sell.
These materials are also uniform, absolute physical barriers to mites and other microbiological contaminants.

Because the material is hydrophobic (water repellant), the pores do not wet and fill with liquid if water vapor condenses on the surface of the vent. The vent therefore remains open to gas exchange at all times.
This is a major advantage over crude vent materials such as cotton plugs, which only remain open to gas exchange and effective microbiological barriers as long as they remain absolutely dry.

Because the vent is reliably welded to the lid, no losses are incurred due to penetration of the vent by mites or other microbiological contaminants.

LifeGuard® vented lids are guaranteed to withstand a minimum of 24 autoclaving cycles without loss of their integrity.
On a price per use basis, this makes them far more cost effective than any crude, unreliable solutions to venting such as self-glued cotton pads glued or taped over holes in the vessel. When you account for the variability in the plant product produced, losses due to contamination and the cost of labor, such “cheap” vents turn out to be more costly by far.


Polycarbonate Lids for 109 x 109 mm Size Vessels:
LifeGuard® vented lids consist of a tough polypropylene sterilizing membrane welded to a polycarbonate lid. Four sizes of vents are available for the 109mm square size vessels:
  • [750 541]
    • 10 mm diameter
  • [750 543]
    • 16 mm diameter
  • [750 545]
    • 22 mm diameter
  • [750 547]
    • 40 mm diameter
    See :polycarbonate Lids catalog

    Depending on the volume of air in the vessel, these vent sizes will allow approximately 0.8 – 4.4 gas exchanges per day.
    [Table of Water & Gas Exchange Rates]
    The lids are autoclavable and reusable.

    Polypropylene Lids for Magenta GA-3/7 Style Vessels:
    Magenta style GA-3/7 vessel lids consist of a composite of a 0.3 micron polypropylene membrane film between two layers of protective porous material which is welded to the polypropylene lid. Three vent sizes are available:
  • [750 710]
    • 10 mm diameter
  • [750 716]
    • 16 mm diameter
  • [750 722]
    • 22 mm diameter
    See :Polypropylene Lids catalog

    These vent sizes, with a GA-7 vessel bottom allow for 2- 4 air exchanges per day.

    • [Table of Water & Gas Exchange Rates]
    The lids are autoclavable and reusable.


    Polypropylene Lids for Baby Food Jars and 25mm Test tubes:
    For Baby Food Jars, three vent sizes are available:
  • [750 810]
    • 10 mm diameter
  • [750 816]
    • 16 mm diameter
  • [750 822]
    • 22 mm diameter
    See :Lids for Baby Food Jars and 25mm Test tubes catalog
    With a standard BFJ, this covers the range of 2.5 – 6 air exchanges per day.
    [Table of Water & Gas Exchange Rates]
    The lids are autoclavable and reusable.

    Test tube caps, 25mm have only a single size, 10mm vent lid     [750 910]. However, because the test tube is so long and narrow, the water vapor loss rate and the gas exchange rate are much smaller than the theoretical calculation due to temperature gradients within the tube.
    The caps are autoclavable and reusable.


    LifeGuard® RD - Round Disposable (Presterilized) Vessels and Vented Lids:
    LifeGuard® RD vessels are clear, round, polypropylene culture vessels which come packaged presterilized and which can be autoclaved for one further use after cleaning. Two vessel volumes, 250 and 500 cc are available. Each vessel size is supplied with either a 16mm or 22mm diameter vented lid to provide a range of aeration exchange rates.
    Product Number Vessel Volume (cc) Vent Size (mm)
    [702 251] 250 16
    [702 252] 250 22
    [702 501] 500 16
    [702 502] 500 22

    The 702 251/2 model is especially useful to replace petri dishes, as it is about the same diameter, and has a proper closure to simultaneously aerate and exclude contamination.

    See :LifeGuard® RD vessels catalog


    TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
    WATER VAPOR AND GAS EXCHANGE RATES
    Vessel Vent Size (mm) Nominal Vent Area (sq. cm) Vapor Transmission Rate (grams / day) Approx. Number of Gas Exchanges per Day
    700 534 10 0.8 0.4 0.8
      16 2.0 0.7 1.5
      22 3.8 0.9 1.9
      40 12.6 2.1 4.4
             
    701 010 10 0.8 0.4 1.9
    (Magenta) 16 2.0 0.7 3.3
    (GA-7) 22 3.8 0.9 4.2
             
    702 251 16 2.0 0.7 5.2
    702 252 22 3.8 0.9 6.7
    702 501 16 2.0 0.7 2.1
    702 502 22 3.8 0.9 2.8
             
    Baby Food 10 0.8 0.4 2.6
    Jar 16 2.0 0.7 4.6
      22 3.8 0.9 5.9
             
    25mm Test tube 10 0.8 0.4 10.4


    References

    1. Deberghe and Vandershaeghe, Mass propagation of in vitro plantlets, Chronica Hort., 30:1-2, (1990).
    2. Jackson, Abbott and Belcher, Ventilation in plant tissue cultures and effects of poor aeration, Ann. Bot. 67: 229- 237 , (1991).
    3. Dillen and Buysens, A simple system to overcome vitrification in Gysophya peniculata , L. Plant Cell Tissue Organ Culture, 19: 181-189,      (1989).
    4. Rossetto, Dixon and Burn, Aeration: A simple method to control vitrification, In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol., 28P: 192-196, (1992).
    5. A. V. Roberts, et.al, Plant Cell Tissue Organ Culture, 21:129 (1990).
    6. V. Gaba, Volcani Institute Israel, Private Communication, March 1994.
    7. Ivana Gribaudo, M. Restagno, and V. Novello, Vented Vessels Affect Growth Rate of In Vitro Vitis vinifera cv Nebbiolo, 1st Symposium      on Acclimatization and Establishment of Micropropagated Plants, Sani-Halkidiki (GR), 19-22 October, 2001.
    8.A. Benzioni, D. Mills, S. Wenkart, and Z. Yanquing,      
    Effect of ventilation on performance of different jojoba clones (Simmondia chinensis): multiplication stage, 1st Symposium on Acclimatization and Establishment of Micropropagated Plants, Sani-Halkidiki (GR), 19-22 October, 2001.




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