Gas Exchange Chambers for Photosynthesis and Respirometry

Thursday May 20th – was World Bee Day, and a reminder to say thanks to all those pollinators we depend upon. This week’s newsletter focuses on chambers in which to study the physiology of bees, other insects, animals, aquatic organisms, plants and microbes. Whatever your requirements, Qubit has a long history of providing customized chambers for diverse applications in plant and animal research. Let us know what your needs are, and we will work with you towards an optimal solution.

Insect respirometry can be challenging if you wish to monitor insects of different dimensions. As well as standard chambers for insect respirometry, Qubit supplies a variable volume chamber in which a plunger is used to move the end cap (sealed with a double o-ring) to obtain a range of volumes.

Such chambers are particularly useful for stop-flow respirometry of very small insects (such as drosophila) and are equipped with a solenoid-controlled by-pass that can be activated for flushing or sealing the chamber for a user-defined period. The glass-aluminum construction prevents water absorption by chamber materials. Insect chambers and our larger chambers for herps, small animals, and large mammals can be used with Qubit’s RP1LP and RP2LP respirometry packages, starting at $160 US.

See: Kierdof K et al (2020) Muscle function and homeostasis require cytokine inhibition of AKT activity in Drosophila. DOI:10.7554/eLife.51595

New Photosynthesis Chamber

Qubit’s Q-Box CO650 Plant CO₂ Analysis Package is a fully integrated, modular research system for measuring photosynthesis, transpiration, and respiration in leaves, whole plants, and root systems. Our latest addition to the CO650 package is a temperature-controlled leaf chamber that maintains a stable leaf temperature irrespective of ambient temperature and irradiance.

The Q-Box CO650 and our Q-Box NF1LP Nitrogen Fixation Package can also be used with our root chambers to measure respiration and N₂ fixation rate, respectively.

The Q-Box CO650 Package with the temperature-controlled leaf chamber starts at $12,700 US.  The Q-Box NF1LP Package sells for $10,150.

Arabidopsis Chambers

Arabidopsis is an extremely useful plant model, but it can be finicky for photosynthesis measurements. Our whole plant Arabidopsis chamber makes this easy by non-invasively separating the root from the rosette. Our single-leaf arabidopsis chamber allows the sealing of a single leaf from the rosette without damaging the plant. Either chamber may be used with our Q-Box CO650 package or with your existing gas exchange system.

At the other end of the scale, Qubit builds customized gas exchange chambers for large plants, incorporating gas control systems to ensure atmospheric homogeneity.

Aquatic Chambers

Qubit’s Q-BOX AQUA packages come complete with a range of chambers for monitoring intermittent flow respirometry in fish and other aquatic organisms. They include water pumps with appropriate ranges for each experimental subject. We provide chambers for Danio species and microchambers for larvae and eggs. In addition, we build customized chambers that allow, for example, respirometry measurements of organisms that can be fully submerged (dissolved gas measurements) or partially submerged (headspace measurements).

See: Rahi L et al. (2020) Impact of salinity changes on growth, oxygen consumption, and expression pattern of selected candidate genes in the orange mud crab (Scylla Olivacea). Aquaculture Research 51: 4290-4301 https://doi.org/10.1111/are.14772

Dissolved Oxygen Cuvettes

A range of dissolved O₂ cuvettes can be supplied with our OX1LP Dissolved O2 package. These have volumes from 1mL to 50mL, each volume variable to 17% of maximum by adjusting a plunger. They can be used to monitor O2 uptake and O2 release with chloroplasts, mitochondria, algae, cell suspensions, and small aquatic invertebrates. Each water-jacketed cuvette attaches to a common high-resolution polarographic O₂ sensor and sits on top of a magnetic stirrer. An optional temperature probe measures the suspension temperature directly, and a port in the plunger can be used to inject metabolic effectors.

OX1LP packages start at $3,300 US.

See: Koblizek M et al (2020) Utilization of Light energy in phototropic Gemmatimonadetes. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B 213: 112085 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2020.112085

Soil Chambers

Monitoring soil respirometry is becoming increasingly important to assess soils as sources or sinks for greenhouse gases. Our Q-Box SR1LP Soil Respirometry Package is equipped with a soil collar that is placed within the soil to minimize disturbance, and a chamber that fits on top of this to allow measurement of the natural exchange of CO₂ between the soil surface and the analyzer. A second chamber is provided for measuring respiratory CO₂ from soil samples collected from the field. The SR1LP Package starts at $9,800.

See: Urvashi Tomar & Ratul Baishya (2020) Seasonality and moisture regime control soil respiration, enzyme activities, and soil microbial biomass carbon in a semi-arid forest of Delhi, India. Ecological Processes volume 9, Article number: 50 (2020)