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Jay T Arnott

Is autoclaving sucrose solution necessary?

David Grisell  Follow

I wouldn't autoclave this solution - sucrose will partly break down into glucose and fructose. A portion of the sugars will also caramellize and color the solution yellow to brown.

If you need the solution to be sterile, I would filter sterilize it, although this can be hard because of the higher viscosity of the sugar solution. If you haven't seen any negative effects of preparing the solution fresh with autoclaved water, I don't think there is any need to change your protocol.

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Georgios Margaritis  Follow
@canadianer I stopped it, after we got brown solutions back. Seems to depend on the autoclave. Our solution was to make really high concentrated solutions (and these are hard to filter), to have the osmotic pressure on our side against contaminations. Works pretty well.More
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Isaac To  Follow
I routinely autoclave 20% sucrose and don't More
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Jerome Zoeller  Follow
any evidence of caramellization. Also, 10% sucrose would not be difficult to filter.More
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Alexandra Moroz  Follow

I found a standard protocol for the same here : http://vosshall.rockefeller.edu/assets/file/Vosshall%20Lab%20Mosquito%20Rearing%20SOP%20DEC%2012-2014.pdf

Take a look at page no.8. They suggest to autoclave the sucrose solution.

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Greg Kaese  Follow
The protocol refers to a preprogrammed cycle and doesn't specify psi. I vaguely recall using a lower psi setting for sugar solutions – 6 psi/110°C? – as compared to standard 15psi/121°C so maybe that is what this refers to.More
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