Standard Operating Procedure:

E. coli transformation

Hazards:

EXPOSURE TO RECOMBINANT DNA

Protection:

Always wear gloves and lab coat when handling recombinant DNA or E. coli. 

Waste:

Waste must autoclaved prior to disposal.

Spill Clean-Up:

Procedure:

 

1.     Thaw competent DH5a on ice.  (Need 50 or 100ul per transformation).  Use ÒhomemadeÓ bugs or Gibco #18265-017 (subcloning efficiency) bugs.

2.     Aliquot 50 or 100ul into pre-chilled tubes.

3.     Add 1/5th of the ligation mix or 20 ng. (Usually this volume is 4ul.  Should not exceed 10% of the volume of the bugs). 

Incubate 10-60 minutes on ice.

4.     Heat shock at 42oC for 45 seconds, put back on ice immediately

5.     Add 900ul LB.  Incubate 60 minutes @ 37oC.

6.     Spin bacteria 5 minutes at high speed.  Remove all but 100ul supernatant.

7.     Resuspend bacteria with a pipette and plate 90ul or 10ul on LB agar plates with antibiotic of choice.

8.     Incubate ON at 37oC in bacterial incubator

9.     Pick single colonies with a sterile toothpick (do not pick unusually large or small colonies).  Add the toothpick to 3ml of LB + antibiotic in a 15ml round-bottom tube.

10.  Incubate ON in shaker

11.  This ON culture can be used for minipreps, frozen (aliquot .85ml of the culture into a freezer vial, add 150ul sterile glycerol, store at –70), or used to innoculate a 250ml culture for a large scale prep (use 250ul).