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sonicate

Sonicate refers to applying sound energy or waves at high frequencies to a liquid or solution sample. Sonication or ultrasonication is achieved by using ultrasonic frequencies over 20kHz. The main goals of sonication are particle or nanoparticle dispersal, agglomerate breakdown, and size reduction. Sonication may be performed by using an ultrasonic bath or a probe immersed directly into the sample.

Sonication is a crucial initial step in protein extraction from whole tissues and cells in preparation for protein purification workflows relying on resins or magnetic beads. For protein extraction, sonication of tissues or cells is commonly performed by adding an ice-cold lysis buffer (e.g., RIPA buffer) and in the presence of protease and phosphatase inhibitors. Different sample types, such as animal tissues, blood serum, cell culture suspensions, and plant matter, may be subjected to sonication-rest cycles and kept cold by incubation on ice to avoid high-temperature induced protein degradation.

In molecular biology, sonication is also leveraged to induce DNA fragmentation or shearing to enable downstream applications (e.g., DNA subcloning, sequencing DNA library preparation). DNA sonication allows the preparation of libraries for Next-Generation Sequencing and chromatin fractionation for epigenetic studies (e.g., Chromatin immunoprecipitation or ChIP).

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