siRNA library screen of mouse ES cells Optimize cell number for experiment. Optimize TOP transfection reagent and Luciferase assay conditions. Optimize siRNA transfection using GAPDH control kit and various transfection reagents. Optimize plate reader for luciferase assay conditions and plate size. Order all reagents with the possibility of repeating a minimum of 4 times. Order enough sterile filter tips and white TC plates – Very important to use filter tips. CGR8 ES cells: siRNA transfection using 0.2 l Dharmafect1 per well with 10 nM siRNA. TOP transfection using 0.2 g TOP plasmid and 0.5 L Lipofectamine 2000. Catalogue #: Alumaseal II sterile seals for 96 well plates (for aliquot of library): 351006024 – Fisher $50/50 seals. Axygen full skirt 96 well PCR plate (for aliquot of library): 10011-228 – VWR $84.54/case of 50. White 96 well TC plates: 07200722 Corning 3362 – Fisher $384/case of 100. KDAlert GAPDH Enzyme Assay: AM1639 – Applied Biosystems $268/375 rxns. Lipofectamine 2000: 11668-019 – Invitrogen $580/1.5 ml. Dharmafect1: T2001-03 – Dharmacon $415/1.5 ml. Luciferin: L6882 – Sigma $1190/50 mg. Coenzyme A: C3144 – Sigma $231/100 mg. Optimem and GMEM media 1. Bring up ES cells, passage 2-3 times. 2. Subculture and dilute to 3000 cells/100 L in complete ES media. 3. Calculate how many plates to use for screen X2. Gelatin coat 96 well plates for 10 minutes with 100 L, remove by flicking into sink. For example, the kinase library had 7 pooled siRNA 96 well plates and the phosphatase library had 3 plates for a total of 10 plates per cell line per repetition – 40 plates in all (two repetitions and two cell lines). 40 plates are too much to handle at one time, high risk for contamination, so maybe do one repetition instead. 4. Plate 100 L of cell suspension into each well, incubate overnight. 5. Prepare for siRNA transfection. Use aliquoted library that has been pooled and is at a concentration of 200 nM. Calculate 10 l of siRNA per well per repetition. Do two repetitions. Transfer siRNA to clean 96 well PCR plates. Prepare Dharmafect transfection reagent. Calculate 0.2 L Dharmafect1 + 14.8 l Optimem per well (15 L total). Add 15 l Dharmafect/Optimem to 10 l siRNA per well per repetition. Incubate 30 minutes. 6. Remove media from 96 well plates by flicking into sink. Add new complete ES media to wells, 75 L per well. 7. Aliquot using multipipetor, 25 L of siRNA/Dharmafect/Optimem to each well. Remember to label carefully. Incubate for 48 hours. 8. Prepare mastermix of TOP reporter plasmid plus Lipofectamine 2000. Calculate 0.2 g of TOP DNA per well + 25 L of Optimem per well, multiplied by the number of wells that need to be transfected. Prepare 0.5 l Lipofectamine + 25 L Optimem, multiplied by the number of wells that need to be transfected. Combine the two solutions and incubate for 30 minutes. Change media on cells; remove by flicking into the sink. Add 100 L Optimem to each well with the multipipetor. Add 50 L of DNA+Lipo+Optimem per well using multipipetor. Incubate 24 hours. 9. Harvest with fresh NP-40 Lysis buffer, 20 L per well. NP-40 lysis buffer: 10 mL 1 M Tris pH 7.8, 5 mL 10% NP-40, 85 mL ddH2O, fresh 50 mM DTT (2 mL buffer + 1 L 1M DTT). 10. Luciferase assay of cell lysates in plate. Calculate how much you will need to add 100 L per well. For 20 plates, you will need 300 mL. Luciferase Assay Buffer: (Promega) Stock: 9 ml 6 ml 3 ml final conc. 500 mM Tricine 360 µl 240 µl 120 µl 20 mM Tricine 100 mM Mg-carbonate 97 64 32 1.07 mM MgCO3 1 M MgSO4 24 16 7.5 2.67 mM MgSO4 50 mM EDTA 18 12 6 0.1 mM EDTA 1 M DTT 299 198 99 33.3 mM DTT 10 mM coenzymeA 243 162 81 270 µM coenzymeA 100 mM luciferin 42.3 28.2 14 470 µM luciferin 100 mM ATP 47.7 31.8 16.5 530 µM ATP DDH2O 7869 5248 2624 Buffer has to be room temperature before using. Aliquot 100 L of Luciferase Assay Buffer per well using multipipetor and read in plate reader immediately. Plate reader setting should have been optimized prior to the experiment.