Add 5 mL of W5 solution to petri dish
After three hours, remove the leaves from the enzyme solution using tweezers, gently lift up and down to release trapped protoplasts
Place a cell strainer in the lid of the petri-dish, add 1 mL of W5 to wet the strainer, then filter the protoplasts solution (make sure not to drop them from a height)
Using a funnel, transfer the filtered protoplasts to a 30 mL plastic, round bottomed tube, and add another 5 mL of W5
Gently swirl the protoplasts to mix, until just homogenous
Pellet at 100 x g for 3 mins
Carefully remove the supernatant (make sure not to suck up any of the protoplasts, and if you do, don’t pipette them back into the solution – once they’re gone, they’re gone, pipetting will destroy them)
Add 15 mL of W5
Estimate the concentration using a haemocytometer (at this stage there may be some chloroplasts/debris visible still)
Calculation: total number of cells = (average cells of 4 squares counted) x 10,000 x initial volume x dilution factor (Recommended: 5 µL protoplasts and 20 µL W5, (4x dilution) add 8 µL to each side of the haemocytometer)
incubate on ice in the dark for 40 mins or until the protoplasts have settled to the bottom of the tube (up to 1 hr)
Remove the supernatant, and adjust to 300,000-350,000 protoplasts/mL using MMG