Universite de Neuchatel 5 articles published in JoVE Developmental Biology Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification (TRAP) to Investigate Arabidopsis thaliana Root Development at a Cell Type-Specific Scale Martha Thellmann1, Tonni Grube Andersen2, Joop EM Vermeer1,3 1Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, 2Biophore - UNIL, 3Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel Translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) offers the possibility to dissect developmental programs with minimal processing of organs and tissues. The protocol yields high-quality RNA from cells targeted with a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled ribosomal subunit. Downstream analysis tools, such as qRT-PCR or RNA-seq, reveal tissue and cell type-specific expression profiles. Biochemistry Affinity Purification of Chloroplast Translocon Protein Complexes Using the TAP Tag Venkatasalam Shanmugabalaji1, Véronique Douet1, Birgit Agne2, Felix Kessler1 1Laboratory of Plant Physiology, University of Neuchatel, 2Institut fur Biochemie und Biotechnologie, Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg We here present a proven and tested protocol for the purification of chloroplast protein import complexes (TOC-TIC complex) using the TAP-tag. The one-step affinity-isolation protocol can potentially be applied to any protein and be used to identify new interaction partners by mass spectrometry. Environment Evaluating Dryocosmus Kuriphilus-induced Damage on Castanea Sativa Eric Gehring1,2, Bruno Bellosi1, Ambra Quacchia1, Marco Conedera1 1Insubric Ecosystem Research Group, WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, 2Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, Université de Neuchâtel It is common practice to assess the damage caused by Dryocosmus kuriphilus by considering the abundance of galls alone rather than by also taking related branch corruption into consideration. We propose a composite damage index that takes into account the most important branch features, thus enabling more realistic damage assessment. Immunology and Infection Inoculating Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes with Beads to Induce and Measure the Melanization Immune Response Antoine M. G. Barreaux1,2, Priscille Barreaux1,2, Matthew B. Thomas2, Jacob C. Koella1 1Laboratoire d'écologie et d'épidémioloigie parasitaire, Institut de biologie, Université de Neuchâtel, 2Merkle Lab, Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University Through inoculation with beads, the described technique enables the stimulation of the mosquito melanization response in the hemolymph circulating system. The amount of melanin covering the beads can be measured after dissection as a measure of the immune response. Environment Physical Isolation of Endospores from Environmental Samples by Targeted Lysis of Vegetative Cells Tina Wunderlin1, Thomas Junier2, Christophe Paul3, Nicole Jeanneret3, Pilar Junier3 1Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, 2Vital-IT group, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 3Laboratory of Microbiology, University of Neuchatel A method to single out bacterial endospores from complex microbial communities was developed to perform tailored culture or molecular studies of this group of bacteria.
