Electro competent cells

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Preparation of Electro competent E. coli cells (per the BioRad directions)

1. Inoculate 1 liter of 2XYT with 1/100 volume of a fresh overnight culture. (Leo grows in a 1L Fernbach flask)

2. Grow cells at 37°C with vigorous shaking to an OD600 of approximately 0.5-0.7 (the best results are obtained with cells that are harvested at early- to mid-log phase; the appropriate cell density therefore depends on the strain and growth conditions.

3. To harvest, centrifuge cells in cold centrifuge bottles in a cold rotor at 4000xg for 15 minutes.

4. Remove as much of the supernatant as possible. Sacrifice the yield by pouring off a few cells rather than leaving any supernatant behind.

5. Gently resuspend the pellets in a total of 1 liter of ice-cold 10% glycerol taking care not to lyse them. Centrifuge as in step 3.

6. Resuspend in 0.5 liter of ice-cold 10% glycerol. Centrifuge as in step 3.

7. Resuspend in 250 ml of ice-cold 10% glycerol. Centrifuge as in step3.

8. Resuspend to a final volume of 3 to 4 ml of ice-cold 10% glycerol. The cell concentration should be 1-3 x 1010 cells/ml.

9. Freeze in aliquots on dry ice or liquid nitrogen and store at -70°C.


Do not autoclave or filter-sterilize the glycerol; prepare fresh weekly


2L of 10% glycerol: make fresh each time 200ml glycerol 1800 ml of mqH20

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