Phase lock gel tubes-one into many?

[brainsnomnom]

OK, so thanks to my not-specific-enough instructions our wonderful tech ordered the wrong product from 5 Prime, getting the 50-ml Heavy Phase-Lock Gel tubes instead of the 2-ml. My money is nonexistent, and since the company DOESN'T ACCEPT ANY RETURNS (a draconian policy that pretty much guarantees they just lost my business, if I re-order a product like this I will use Qiagen's Maxtract tubes or something similar just to avoid giving them any more money---boo), I was wondering if anyone has ever gone rogue and used autoclaved RNAse free instruments to carve up the gel in the big tube and aliquot it out into separate Eppendorfs. Or can you heat it to the melting point and aliquot out? What's in that stuff anyway? As a side note, I can understand a company not accepting returns on something that has to be shipped on dry ice, etc., or charging a restocking fee, but this crap is one small box shipped at room temp and the only thing I did was open the shipping box. Grumblegrumblegrumble jerksjerksjerks...

[r.rosati]

It is a silicon-based grease.
I once read an ancient paper where Dow Corning high-vacuum grease had been used to do the trick, and so I bought it and tried it with Trizol, but it didn't work (I think it sank to the bottom of the tube) - possibly the composition of the Dow-Corning HWG has been changed since then.
Sure, you can re-aliquot it, no problem. Just be clean.

[brainsnomnom]

Funny, I found that paper too and was wondering if I could aliquot and then autoclave this stuff. Will try, and post results!

[brainsnomnom]

UPDATE: Yup, you can split one large tube into a bzillion smaller tubes using a sterile stainless spatula, approximately 100ul per tube. I also found that when I use Trireagent it gets a little sloppy if I spin it at 4C, but if I spin it in the centrifuge in the cold room (which I would guess is closer to 6-8C (?), it makes a nice gel phase without sticking to the sides. Also, when I am using it for PCI cleanups or just a second BCP/chloroform cleanup, I never get the "smears" on the side like I occasionally do with the Trireagent. FWIW. One box of large size tubes could potentially last you, like, forever. Silicone grease seems to work ok too, no real difference in the side-by-side except that it seems to smear a little worse with Trireagent. All in all, for shaky-handed folks like me this stuff is a godsend! I'll never extract RNA without them (and Pellet Paint) again.

[r.rosati]

Great to know!
Which kind of silicone grease did you use?

[brainsnomnom]

Dow Corning high vacuum grease. I was going to autoclave it, but since that doesn't really eliminate RNAses and my primers are designed not to amplify genomic DNA, I didn't actually bother, just used RNAse/DNAse free tubes and autoclaved spatula, then spun them down at 12,000 g for a couple of minutes.