The new spectrophotometer, a Nanodrop 8000, is used to quantify nucleic acid (NA) content of all samples. An excel spreadsheet with formulas is used to determine what quantity of water needs to be added, if any, to standardize the NA content. Each sample then has the requisite amount of water added to dilute it to the pre-determined concentration in the master plate. Plates for all assays are drawn from this master plate so that the precise amount of NA determined to be optimal for that set of primers is used. The Leica teaching microscope is now fully functional and has been used both to teach and also to evaluate dissection technique. We have a new employee starting next week and this teaching microscope will be instrumental in teaching. We have also found it very useful for examination of developing shoot-tip grafts (STGs). One person handles the tube, the other takes the notes and with two opinions where needed, STGs can be more successfully examined with the result of fewer root sprouts being sent to the greenhouse. Also by careful examination of which STGs are successful, dissection technique can be improved. The second microscope, a Leica dissecting microscope was received in good working order. The old hood the new Leica dissecting microscope is used in has a single body construction and the vibrations are too much to be able to use the microscope in the hood. Several avenues are being explored to solve this problem. During this quarter, the number of selections being cleaned up is up to 99. Seventeen selections have been added to the list and 22 selections were released, several others had their status changed. Five hundred fiftyeight STGs were set up. These represented 13 varieties. During this same time period, 34 successful STGs were grafted onto rootstocks in the greenhouse. These represented 14 varieties. For testing, 38 STG and 7 parent samples were extracted and 84 real-time PCR tests were performed on parents and STGs that grew to sufficient size in the greenhouse. Seventynine trees were budded for increase from tested original STGs to either be planted in the Citrus Budwood Foundation at Chiefland and/or to be given back to the breeder/owner. Thirty propagations from STGs were planted at Chiefland, five represented a breedersÕ selection. Testing of all selections at the Chiefland Foundation for the 2009 testing season has begun using samples adjusted to the proper titer for each set of primers. This represents the first time testing will be done based on data. Whether or not samples even have adequate nucleic acids present will be known. Citrus tatter leaf virus SYBR green real-time PCR assay will be used on the foundation trees for the first time.