Mixer Mill MM 300

The Mixer Mill MM 300 is a high-throughput system designed for simultaneous, rapid, and effective disruption of up to 192 biological samples.

Features and benefits

• Efficient disruption of up to 2 x 96 samples in parallel
• Fast processing in 2–4 minutes
• Uniform disruption results
• No tedious grinding using rotor-stator homogenizer or mortar and pestle
• A choice of disruption vessels for increased flexibility
• Easy to program

Formats

The Mixer Mill MM 300 allows processing of different sample volumes in a variety of formats with adapters. QIAGEN offers 96 collection microtubes (1.2 ml) in racks or 24 (3 x 8) 1.5 or 2.0 ml microcentrifuge tubes to use in combination with the Mixer Mill MM 300. Typically, up to 50 mg x 96 samples of plant tissue or up to 30 mg x 24 samples of animal tissue can be efficiently disrupted. Larger starting amounts (up to several grams) can be efficiently processed with the Mixer Mill MM 300 but require larger grinding vessels. Grinding vessels with volumes of up to 25 ml and a variety of different beads are available from Retsch GmbH & Co. KG.

Principle

The Mixer Mill MM 300 provides rapid and efficient disruption of up to 2 x 96 biological samples, such as plant and animal tissues, bacteria, and yeast in just 2–4 minutes. Disruption is achieved through the beating and grinding effect of beads on the sample material as they are shaken together in the grinding vessels. The Mixer Mill MM 300 is easily programmed to provide variable speed settings from 3–30 Hz (180–1800 oscillations/min) and run times from 10 s to 99 min.

Procedure

For high-throughput applications the Mixer Mill MM 300 is typically used with the Mixer Mill Adapter Set 2 x 96. For disruption of biological material prior to RNA isolation in either 24-well* (using the Mixer Mill Adapter Set 2 x 24) or 96-well* format QIAGEN recommends the use of 3 mm stainless steel beads (available from Retsch GmbH & Co KG). For disruption of plant tissue QIAGEN recommends the use of 3 mm tungsten carbide beads. Fresh or frozen plant samples can be processed after pre-cooling in liquid nitrogen. Alternatively fresh material can be disrupted directly in lysis buffer. Sample material and a single bead are added to each well in two racks. The racks are fixed into clamps on the mixer mill using the adapter plates, and disruption is carried out in two 1–2 minute high-speed (20–30 Hz) shaking steps.

Applications

The Mixer Mill MM 300 provides uniform disruption of plant or animal† tissues in each sample vessel for reproducible, high-quality results in downstream applications such as isolation of genomic DNA from plants (see figure "Reproducible DNA Yields") or total RNA from animal tissues (see figure "High Yields of RNA from a Variety of Tissues").

* QIAGEN recommends tissues be stabilized in RNAlater RNA Stabilization Reagent prior to homogenization.
† Protocols using the Mixer Mill MM 300 to disrupt animal tissue may require optimization by the user.

Reproducible DNA Yields

50 mg samples of leaf tissue from the indicated plant species were disrupted (2 x 1 min at 20 Hz) in liquid nitrogen using the Mixer Mill MM 300 with the adapter set 2 x 96 and 3 mm tungsten carbide beads. DNA was purified using the DNeasy 96 Plant Kit and 1/20 of each eluate was analyzed on an agarose gel. M: lambda-HindIII.

High Yields of RNA from a Variety of Tissues

The indicated mouse tissues were stabilized in RNAlater RNA Stabilization Reagent and then cut into 10 mg pieces. Tissue pieces were homogenized using the Mixer Mill MM 300 or a rotor-stator homogenizer, and total RNA was isolated using the RNeasy Protect Mini Kit and the QIAGEN RNase-Free DNase Set. Formaldehyde agarose gel with 2.5 µg of total RNA per lane. M: tissue homogenized with the Mixer Mill MM 300, R: tissue homogenized with a rotor-stator homogenizer, MA: RNA size marker.