A Fast and Easy Technique for the Isolation of Aleurone Layers

Although the aleurone layer of ceral grain seeds has many advantages for the study of gibberellin action, it has the disadvantage that the hand-isolation of the aleurone layers is time-consuming. To overcome this disadvantage, a commercially available pasta machine was modified and used to remove aleurone layers from imbibed barley (Hordeum vulgare) seeds. This equipment allows isolation of a thousand layers in 5 minutes compared to the 3 to 4 hours required to hand-isolate them. The machine-made aleurone layers are gibberellic-acid responsive and the response is similar both qualitatively and quantitatively to that of hand-isolated layers.