Dissection Microscope: SporePlay+

Singer Instruments have listened to you, worked with you and learnt from you for the last 30 years. We’ve built our entire reputation around the yeast community and, more specifically, yeast tetrad dissection. If there is one thing that you can feel assured of, it’s that the SporePlay+ can dissect tetrads.

How does it work?

The pencil-grip micromanipulator provides ultra-fine control of a glass needle for biological dissection in the microscope field of view. The familiar stage twist grip and the carefully integrated, highly-sensitive micromanipulator pencil grip are controlled in a relaxed, bench-top position.

What can I use it for?

Ascospore dissection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and other fungal and ascospore-producing species.

See detailed benefits and features of the SporePlay+

What is it?

The SporePlay+ is the fastest manual dissection microscope in the world! An upright optical microscope built from the ground up specifically for single cell manipulation, with an extra-long working distance objective, a stage with click-stops in a grid and a micromanipulator that combines X, Y and Z control into a single joystick.

What does it do?

Utilising a smooth-action stage with torque control and click-stops of adjustable pressure at 5mm increments and with grid positions set in two 12×4 orthogonal arrays, coupled with an integrated Index Pointer, the SporePlay+ is ideal for yeast and fungal ascospore dissection. Forget about having to note coordinates or count clicks; the index pointer does it all for you at a glance.

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SporePlay - Yeast tetrad dissection microscope

TETRAD
DISSECTION

TRYPAN BLUE / H&E STRAINING

VIEW x600

SporePlay Tetrad Dissection Online Demonstration

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Needles

Singer Tetrad Dissection Needles

Singer Dissection Needles

PRODUCT CODE: NDL-010

Experts in hand-making Tetrad Dissection Needles for more than thirty years, they contain a light-optimising, 50 um diameter fibre core that is supported by a thicker, taper-ended glass envelope. This unique construction gives the perfect combination of strength and flexibility that gives the needles very long life in normal use.

The needles come in boxes of 10, with discounts available if ordering multiple boxes.

Carefully engineered for light-optimising transmission
Easy to handle
Long enough to reach the thinnest agar
Very hard to break

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FAQS

Why is it called the SporePlay+?

Originally called the SporePlay because it makes tetrad dissection as fun and easy as playing a game, now the SporePlay+ because we’ve upgraded the scope’s features to the next level!

What plates can I use?

The SporePlay+ accepts standard 90mm Petri dish. The SporePlay+ also accepts glass slides when attached to the slide-holder.

What objectives does the SporePlay+ come with?

The SporePlay+ comes with a x20 objective. x4 and x40 objectives are also available. To compensate for a range of Petri dish sizes and agar thicknesses, an appropriate long-working-distance objective has been custom made, which has a lower numerical aperture and associated resolution than short working distance counterparts.

How is the needle controlled?

Needle control is simple and intuitive. A pendant joystick controls the x- and y-axis movement, and a dial controls the z-axis movement. The 3D movements of the needles are easily controlled with one hand.

What is a MicroZapper?

The MicroZapper is an electronically controlled needle agitator that provides an elegant way to separate the spores. It clamps onto the needle holder and at the touch of a button will vibrate the tip of the needle and elegantly break apart spores, thus removing the need to bang the bench or tap the microscope.

What is an Index Pointer? How is it useful?

The Index Pointer is a mechanical indicator of stage-position click stops and a graphical representation of the dissection layout on a Petri dish. This is a nice feature to locate position on a plate for reference and notation.

What are the white grids on Index Pointer?

These are the positions that you can streak your inoculum. We offer two positions for the inoculum streak: one down the side of the plate, and the other across the center. The positions across the center allow much faster dissection as there is sufficient room to find tetrads without the need to move too far out of the column positions.

What is the distance between colonies?

They are at 5mm centres. This allows for 12 columns and 8 rows with a maximum of 96 spores.

What are Click Stops?

These are the detent positions built into the stage that give you tactile feedback and positive positioning within the matrix and the horizontal inoculum position. There is no reason for tedious measuring with Vernier gauges. Users can now ‘feel’ their way from inoculum to matrix without the need to remove the eyes from the scope.

How good is the image?

To minimise airborne contamination of dissection plates, the Petri dish is inverted. As such, the subject is always being viewed through an image-distorting layer of agar and needleholder. It falls short of the optical clarity that the same microscope can achieve by looking at samples on a slide. That being said, the SporePlay+ is plenty sufficient for microbial dissection and there are thousands of satisfied users of Singer Instruments dissection scopes that testify this!

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Accessories

MicroZapper

An electronically controlled needle agitator that provides an elegant way to separate spores, which at the touch of a button, will vibrate the tip of the needle. No more damaged agar or lost spores.

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Objective Lenses

Custom Singer X4, X20 and X40 extra-long working distance flat field parfocal objectives, specially designed for tetrad dissection.

Slide-Holder

Easily convert the stage to allow cells/spores to be manipulated to and from thin-layer agar on glass slides! Can be used in conjunction with slide grid software built in to the MSM 400.

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Tech Specs

SporePlay Manual Dissection Microscope technical specifications

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Product Code

SPO-002

Footprint

L: 37.5 cm x W: 24 cm x H: 43 cm

Weight

15.2 kg

Power Requirements

110 – 240V AC

Optical System

X20 LWD objective

x15 wide field eyepieces.

Micromanipulator

X, Y & Z Axis control from single joystick

Twist-lock mechanism

Tool holder clamp for quick needle change

Stage

Z axis movement 27 mm with fixed upper limit stop for lens protection

5 mm click stop grid positions

2x 12×4 grids for total of 96 spores

Choice of inoculum position

Tool Holder

Pinch-release needle replacement function

Tool holder stop with fine control

Focus

Coarse focus with torque adjustment & lock

Fine focus with 1 µm minimum increment

Illumination

Externally mounted lamp house, 6V/30W

Quartz Halogen illumination

In preparation: 3W LED illumination, 6000K & 4500K

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Support

Singer Instruments has a long-standing reputation for fantastic service and support, for which we are very proud. Our motto, ‘a responsibility to science’, extends to our service and support whereby our primary motivation is to eliminate, or at least minimise, your experimental downtime. We design our products for reliability, longevity, speed, and ease-of-use. Our Lab Support packages augment these design criteria by increasing life-expectancy and increasing device reliability with preventive and predictive maintenance. Should any reactive maintenance be called upon, our time, cost and carbon efficient support should get you up and running in the shortest time possible.

Singer Instruments’ products are fully guaranteed against faulty materials or workmanship for one year from the date of commissioning. Should the product be controlled by a computer, the guarantee necessitates internet connectivity for remote access* availability.

Singer Lab Support is an excellent and cost effective service that gives the Laboratory unlimited access to Singer technical experts by phone, email, VOIP or remote access. All requests are entered into the Singer ticketing system that allows both the Laboratory and Singer Instruments to log, track and monitor any reported issues from initial contact through to resolution. While we aim to respond to all queries within 24 hours, our average response times are far less.

Our Singer Lab Support packages come with discounts for multiple years, multiple products and renewals. We offer 2 levels of cover – Lab Support and Lab Support Plus.

*remote access – a highly secure method of allowing a Singer Instruments engineer access to your machine via an Internet connection. Not applicable for all products.

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Meet our Scientists

Harry Singer
CEO
PhD in Quantum Chaos, first genetics conference and tetrad dissection aged 6

Nripesh Dhungel
N.America Business Manager
Molecular Genetics PhD. Stanford lab-slave (Postdoc) studying neurodegenerative diseases

Jan Singer
Scientific Advisor (Europe)
Genetic manipulation instructor at Cold Spring Harbor Yeast Genetics and Genomics Course since 2007

Tom Drake
Scientific Associate (UK)
MSc in Molecular Biology (U. of Bath). Synthetic Biology ninja

Chong Da Tan
Scientific Advisor (Asia)
Physiology PhD (St. George's). Fluent in Mandarin, English & high-throughput screening

Question for Technical Support?

Log-in to our dedicated Technical Support forum, where you will find FAQs and detailed support assistance. Alternatively send us an email using the address below:

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Benefits

Ultra easy-to-use

SporePlay+ feature: Positional Indicator

INDEX POINTER

This is a mechanical indicator of stage position click-stops. This intuitive feature aids ease-of-use and reduces user-error. Forget about having to note coordinates or count clicks; the index pointer does it all for you at a glance!

ORTHOGONAL GRID

This unique feature of the SporePlay+ gives a graphical representation of the dissection layout, used with the Index Pointer, acts as a positional reminder during stage translation. It also gives the user a choice of inoculum position.

ERGONOMIC DESIGN

The comfortable stage lever controls stage movement with the left hand, while the pendant micromanipulator controls X, Y & Z needle movement with the right hand.

MICROZAPPER™

The MicroZapper is an electronically controlled needle agitator providing an elegant way to separate spores. No more damaged agar and no more lost spores!
See accessories.

SporePlay+ feature: Learn Tetrad Dissection Fast and Easily

FAST TO LEARN

The SporePlay+ is so easy and fun to use, everyone would be able to start manipulating cells on the SporePlay within 5 minutes.

MICROMANIPULATOR

400:1 reduction in movement from pedant control to needle. Damped, vibration free needle movement in 3 dimensions, providing the most intuitive and powerful needle controls.

SMART OBJECTIVE MEMORY

The SporePlay+ remembers the light intensity setting of each objective, so that it automatically reloads the correct settings when you switch between objectives.

Other features

COMPACT

Small footprint: free-up valuable lab space.

SporePlay+ feature: Variety of Plate Types

MULTIPLE PLATE TYPES

The SporePlay+ supports 90mm Petri dishes and rectangular glass slides while using the Slide Holder. See accessories.

NEEDLE PROTECTION

The 50µm optic fibre needles are coated with glass envelops to provide ease-of-handle and additional rigidity to the needles. They will not break even if you jam them into the agar!

ENERGY-SAVING LIGHT

An intelligent energy saving mode which includes a sensor to detect the presence of a person — Turning itself off after 15 minutes of not detecting any presence and switching itself on when a person returns.

Dissection Microscope: SporePlay+