Gelatinous zooplankton can be difficult to preserve morphologically due to unique physical properties of their cellular and acellular components. The relatively large volume of mesoglea leads to distortion of the delicate morphology and poor sample integrity in specimens prepared with standard aldehyde or alcohol fixation techniques. Similar challenges have made it difficult to extend standard laboratory methods such as in situ hybridization to larger juvenile ctenophores, hampering studies of late development. We have found that a household water repellant glass treatment product commonly used in laboratories, Rain-X®, alone or in combination with standard aldehyde fixatives, greatly improves morphological preservation of such delicate samples. We present detailed methods for preservation of ctenophores of diverse sizes compatible with long-term storage or detection and localization of target molecules such as with immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization and show that this fixation might be broadly useful for preservation of other delicate marine specimens. This new method will enable superior preservation of morphology in gelatinous specimens for a variety of downstream goals. Extending this method may improve the morphological fidelity and durability of museum and laboratory specimens for other delicate sample types.

中文翻译：

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改进胶状海洋无脊椎动物的组织学固定

由于其细胞和无细胞成分的独特物理特性，凝胶状浮游动物在形态上可能难以保存。在用标准醛或酒精固定技术制备的样品中，相对较大的中胶层会导致精细形态的扭曲和样品完整性差。类似的挑战使标准实验室方法难以扩展，例如原位杂交到较大的幼年栉水母，阻碍了后期发育的研究。我们发现实验室常用的家用防水玻璃处理产品 Rain-X®，单独使用或与标准醛固定剂结合使用，极大地改善了此类精致样品的形态保存。我们提出了保存各种大小栉水母的详细方法，这些方法与长期储存或目标分子的检测和定位相容，例如免疫组织化学和原位杂交，并表明这种固定可能对保存其他脆弱的海洋标本具有广泛的作用。这种新方法将能够为各种下游目标更好地保存凝胶状标本的形态。扩展这种方法可以提高博物馆和实验室标本的形态保真度和耐用性，用于其他精细样品类型。这种新方法将能够为各种下游目标更好地保存凝胶状标本的形态。扩展这种方法可以提高博物馆和实验室标本的形态保真度和耐用性，用于其他精细样品类型。这种新方法将能够为各种下游目标更好地保存凝胶状标本的形态。扩展这种方法可以提高博物馆和实验室标本的形态保真度和耐用性，用于其他精细样品类型。