I'm going to replica plate my TEARS now!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok guys, none of my supposedly "AWESOME" "FANTASTIC" "OMG SARAH I HEAR YOU CACKLING THROUGH THE WALL LET'S BE DINO BIFFLES IN OUR BLOG FOREVS TOTES" labmates/fellow bloggers have found time in their BUSY SCHEDULES to write anything new and inspiring (Taterz, I'm glaring angrily at our shared wall, nay, FROWNING), so I'll just have to take matters into my own hands.

THAT BEING SAID. Did you know that when we create a yeast strain of interest (i.e. a precious haploid of the correct genotype and mating type obtained from approximately 1.5 billion hours of dissection), we save it for future use (i.e. for ourselves or to share with labs who might want to work with said genotype) by literally FREEZING it - sticking it in that

huge -80 degree celsius deep freezer in the alpha room (aka Esther's cave), and the yeast are totes fine when we go to get them out a month or a year or 30 years later? I THINK THAT IS SO COOL. All you have to do is get some:

-30% glycerol (about a ml per strain you want to freeze)

-Cryotubes and tough-labels (the round white ones)

-Deep freezer (-80 degrees C)

-Lab strain book

-Toothpicks

-Oh, yeast strain(s) too. Preferably useful ones.

Put a ml of glycerol in the cryotube. Glycerol is a viscous fatty acid that protects the cells from the harsh freeze-thaw cycles they endure - that's why we freeze in glycerol instead of plain water.

MY BFF GLYCEROL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then just place a clump of cells in the glycerol, shake it like a Polaroid picture to resuspend them, and freeze them! Then write the full genotype of the strain along with the freezer number in the strain book.

Ok that part was boring but REALLY THE COOLEST THING ABOUT ALL THIS (people who are not interested in reading protocols can start reading here) is that when you go to get them out of the freezer you don't even have to wait for the tube to thaw to remove some of the liquid!!

Karen: You can just scrape a toothpick across the top of the frozen glycerol and streak it onto your YPD plate. They'll grow right up.

Sarah: OHEMGEE, that is like SO COOL!!!!!!!! OMG, YEAST POPSICLE!!!!!!!!!! Can I try it RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!?!??!

Karen: No.

Sad day.