Team:Aix-Marseille/Protocol:supercompetent ecoli cells

From 2014.igem.org

Supercompetent Escherichia coli cells

    Preparation of supercompetent cells

  1. Streak E.coli cells on an LB plate with or without antibiotics.
  2. Allow cells to grow at 37°C overnight.
  3. Place three or four colonies in 5 mL LB media (+ antibiotic selection if necessary), grow overnight at 37°C.
  4. Dilute the preculture to OD600 = 0.005 in 200 mL LB.
  5. Allow cells to grow at 37°C (250 rpm), until OD600= 0.5 (about 2-3 hours).
  6. Transfer cells to 4 centrifuge bottles (50 mL), and place cells on ice for 20 minutes.
  7. Centrifuge cells in Sorval GSA rotor at 4°C for 10 minutes at 3 500 rpm.
  8. Subsequent resuspensions may be done in the same bottle. Cells must remain cold for the rest of the procedure: Transport tubes on ice and resuspend on ice in the cold room.
  9. Discard the supernatant and resuspend cells in 80 mL of cold Tfb1 (300 mM KOAc, 0.05 M MnCl2, 0.1 M CaCl2, Glycerol 15%).
  10. Centrifuge cells using Sorval RT6000B rotor at 4°C for 5 minutes at 3 500 rpm.
  11. Discard the supernatant and resuspend cells (by pipetting) in 8 mL of cold Tfb2 (0.01 M NaMOPS pH7, 0.075 M CaCl2, 0.01 M KCl, Glycerol 15%). Incubate on ice for 15 minutes. Transfer 500 µL of cells into (1.5 mL) Ependorff tubes placed on ice. Cells stored at -80°C can be used for transformation for up to ~6 months.
  12. Transformation

  13. Add 1,5 ng of plasmide DNA to 100 µl of competent cells at 4°C.
  14. Incubate the mixture on ice for 30 minutes.
  15. Transfer the reaction to a 42°C water bath for exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds.
  16. Add 900 µL of LB medium to each tube and incubate at 37°C for 1 hour to allow cells to recover and express the antibiotic resistance marker.
  17. Centrifuge cells for 1 minute at 6 000 rpm. Discard 900 µL of the supernatant and resuspend cells. Spread cells on selective media.
  18. Incubate all plates overnight at 37°C.