Preparation of competent cells



  1. prepare a fresh overnight culture in LB
  2. inoculate 100 ml of prewarmed SOC media with 1 ml of the overnight culture, shake until an OD600 = 0.5 is reached (approx. 2 h)
  3. cool the culture on ice, collect cells by spinning at 5000 rpm for 5 to 10 min (4°C)
  4. discard the supernatant, supend the pellet in cold TFB1 buffer (first gently with a glass pipette in a few ml only, then dilute to 30 ml)
  5. inculate on ice for 90 min
  6. collect the cells (5 min, 5000rpm, 4000xg, 4°C
  7. dicant the supernatant, gently resuspend cells in 4 ml of TFB2 solution
  8. prepare aliquots (100-200 µl) and freeze in liquid nitrogen
  9. store the cells at -70°C

all steps should be performed in the cold room with cold solutions, pipettes, tubes


Transformation


  1. thaw cells on ice
  2. gently mix cells with cold DNA (upto 10µl in 100µl cells)
  3. incubate on ice for 20 min
  4. heat-shock cells for 90s at 42°C
  5. add 500-900µl of SOC medium and incubate for 60 min at 37°C (shake for highest transformation efficiency)
  6. plate appropriate volume on selective LB plates, incubate plates overnight at 37°C

solutions:

TFB1:   100mM RbCl
              50 mM MnCl2
              30 mM  K-acetate
              10 mM CaCl2
               15% Glycerol (w/v)
               pH 5,8

TFB2:  10 mM MOPS
             10 mM RbCl
             75 mM CaCl2
             15 % Glycerol (W/v)
             pH 6,8  (with KOH)