Mix 1 to 5μl of DNA (usually 10pg to 100ng) into 50μL of competent cells in a microcentrifuge tube.
2.
Place the competent cell/DNA mixture on ice for 20min.
3.
Heat shock each transformation tube by placing the bottom of the tube into a 42°C water bath for 45 seconds (time varies depending on the competent cells you are using).
4.
Put the tubes back on ice for 2 min.
5.
Add 500μl LB media (without antibiotic) and grow in 37°C shaking incubator for 1 hour.
6.
Plate 100 μl of the transformation onto a 10cm LB agar plate containing the appropriate antibiotic.
7.
Incubate plates at 37°C overnight.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
Petri dishes with culture
Place in a bag to sterilize
N/A
Liquid LB with culture
Place in a container and with chlorine solution then sterilize
N/A
Safety Notes
Every step must be done in the hood to avoid contamination
Gloves must be worn at all times
References
Seidman, C. E., Struhl, K., Sheen, J., & Jessen, T. (2005). “Basic Protocol 1: Transformation Using Calcium Chloride.” Introduction of plasmid DNA into cells. Current protocols in molecular biology, 1-8.
Prepare starter culture cells. Inoculate a 15mL starter culture of LB with the cells that have the desired plasmid (with the appropriate antibiotic). Grow culture at 37°C in shaker overnight.
Steps
1.
Centrifuge the starter culture.
2.
Decant the supernatant and resuspend the pellet in about 1mL of LB media
3.
Transfer the cells into a Eppendorf tube.
4.
Centrifuge 14,000 rpm / 1 minute.
5.
Decant the supernatant.
6.
Add 200uL of solution I.
7.
Use a pipette to resuspend the pellet.
8.
Add 2uL of RNAse.
9.
Incubate 5min at room temperature.
10.
Add 200uL of Solution II.
11.
Mix gently by inversion 6 times.
12.
Incubate 5 min at room temperature.
13.
Add 200uL of Solution III.
14.
Mix gently by inversion 6 times.
15.
Incubate 5 min on ice.
16.
Centrifuge 14,000 rpm for 10 min.
17.
Transfer the supernatant to a new tube (around 500uL).
18.
Add 2 volumes cool of 100% EtOH (around 1mL).
19.
Incubate at -20°C for 10 min (can be from 10 min to 2 hours).
20.
Centrifuge 14,000 rpm for 10 min.
21.
Decant the supernatant.
22.
Add 200uL of cool 70% EtOH.
23.
Use a pipette to resuspend the pellet.
24.
Centrifuge 14,000 rpm for 5 min.
25.
Decant the supernatant.
26.
Dry pellet at 37 ° C for 5 min.
27.
Add 30uL of ddH2O and resuspend pellet.
28.
Measure DNA concentration in nanodrop.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
Tube with cell pellets
Pour chlorine solution and clean the tube
N/A
Eppendorf with protein waste
Dispose the tube in normal container
N/A
Safety Notes
Gloves must be worn at all times
Can be done safely outside the hood
Try to keep the tubes closed to avoid contamination
Analyze DNA constructs and assemblies using restriction enzymes.
Cut DNA fragments in order to ligate them.
Approximate time
2 hrs
Material
PCR tubes
DNA sample
Restryction Enzymes (EcoRI, SpeI, PstI, XbaI)
NEB Enzyme buffer
Nuclease free dH2O
Equipment & Apparatus
Thermocycler (BioRad)
Nanodrop (Thermo)
Previous steps
Measure the DNA concentration of the sample using the Nanodrop.
Calculate the required concentrations of the components depending on the DNA of the sample, and the reaction volume.
Ideally you must put 1 enzyme unit per each µg of DNA, yet the provider recommends using 10 times that quantity and adjust the volumes. Our most typical reaction was set up to be 20 µL.
Reaction volume
Restriction Enzyme
DNA
10X BEBuffer
10 µl rxn
1 unit
0.1 µg
1 µl
25 µl rxn
5 units
0.5 µg
2.5 µl
50 µl rxn
10 units
1 µg
5 µl
Steps
1.
Set and label your PCR tubes.
2.
With the micropipette first pour the nuclease free dH2O.
3.
Pour the NEB buffer 10X to get the 1X concentration.
4.
Put the DNA sample next, this sample must be as clean as possible.
5.
The enzymes must be put lastly, be careful to handle them because they are very temperature sensitive. (Handle with ice and return them to the fridge as soon as possible).
6.
Set up the Thermocycler at 37º for 1h and inactivate the enzyme at 80º for 20 mins.
7.
Analyze using agarose electrophoresis.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
Digestion waste in PCR tube
Place in trash container.
N/A
Safety Notes
Gloves must be worn at all times.
Handle the enzymes carefully.
Typically the digestion will be used to confirm or to use the digestion to ligate. The first could generate some waste, but the second usually won't.
Analyze DNA fragments based on their movement in a uniform electric field.
Approximate time
120 min
Material
Agarose (BioRad)
TAE Buffer (Promega)
Loading dye (Promega)
10 kb and 1 kb weight stair (Promega)
Ethidium bromide (BioRad)
Pipettes and tips
DNA sample
Equipment & Apparatus
Electrophoresis chamber (Fisher Scientific)
Voltage source (BioRad)
Transiluminator (Thermo)
Previous steps
Digestion. Usually this protocol precedes the electrophoresis.
Check if there is TAE available. A stock 50X can be made from:
Tris-base: 242 g
Acetate (100% acetic acid): 57.1 ml
EDTA: 100 ml 0.5M sodium EDTA
Add dH2O up to one litre.
Related protocols
Digestion, enzyme restriction analysis.
Steps
Prepare the gel
1.
The amount of agarose depends on the size of the DNA. (A guide can be seen in the table below)
Agarose Concentration (g/100mL)
Optimal DNA Resolution (kb)
0.5
1 - 30
0.7
0.8 - 12
1.0
0.5 - 10
1.2
0.4 - 7
1.5
0.2 - 3
2.
Measure out the appropriate mass of agarose into a beaker with the appropriate volume of buffer. The volume in the lab gelbox is 50mL.
3.
Microwave until the agarose is fully melted and cool down a few minutes.
4.
Pour the agarose solution into the taped gelbox. Carefuly pop or shove to the side any bubbles, put in the comb, and let it cool for about 30 minutes, until the gel is solid.
Load the gel
5.
Mix the DNA samples with 5X loading dye solution to make it reach 1X. (Except for 1 µL of sample you can use 1µL of Loading dye).
6.
Pour the mixture in the wells. Be careful with the bubbles and breaking the gel with the pipette.
7.
Fill the chamber with TAE and run the gel 70 min at 90 V and ~180 mA
Stain and visualize the gel
8.
Stain the gel soaking it in EtBr, be careful not to break it.
9.
Reveal usin the transiluminator, first focus using the white light lamp and use the UV to make the bands visible.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
TAE
Throw through the sink, the school has a water treatment plant for all the facilities.
N/A
Gel
The gel has EtBr, which is very mutagenic, gloves must be used to handle the gel when you soak it in the solution. The gel must be disposed in the EtBr container
Do not touch the gel or the EtBr solution with your bare hands
EtBr solution
Every once in a while the solution must be changed, and the discarded solution must be
See above
Gloves
You must discard the glove you use when you handle the gel and the computer. They must be thrown in the EtBr labeled container.
Make sure to dispose your gloves
Safety Notes
Remember to use the EtBr at the delimited area in the lab.
Dispose your gloves after handling the gel.
If you accidentally touch a surface of EtBr designed area, remember to soak yourself with ethanol 70% to inactivate the EtBr. Seriously, this shouldn’t happen.
Extract the protein produced by E. coli and purification of polyhistidine-tagged proteins from a soluble protein extract by metal affinity chromatography.
Grow E. coli culture to 0.8OD.Centrifuge and keep the pellet (wet biomass) for lysis. Supernatant can be kept to compare the concentration of protein with the lysate.
Prepare Purification Buffers under this specifications:
Imidazole Finale Conc. (mM)
10X PBS (mL)
2M Imidazole (µL)
Water (mL)
10
1
50
8.95
25
1
125
8.875
40
1
200
8.8
60
1
300
8.7
75
1
375
8.625
150
1
750
8.25
200
1
1000
8
250
1
1250
7.75
500
1
2250
6.5
Steps
1.
Take 2.0g of wet biomass and place it in a plastic test tube up to 50ml.
2.
Resuspend the solution in 28ml of Tween 20 5% v/v in K2HPO4 25mM pH 7.5.
3.
Introduce the sonication probe in the suspension of cells. Sonicate the sample 10 seconds and turn of another 10 seconds for 3 minutes. The tube should be put in ice during the procedure.
4.
Centrifuge samples (4,000rpm) for 2 min.
5.
Quantify total protein in the lysate and supernatant using Biuret method. Use LB medium as blank with Biuret reagent.Spectrometer reading at 540nm should be compared with standard curve previously made.
Purification
6.
Prepare sample by mixing protein extract with Equilibration Buffer so the total volume equals two resin-bed volumes.
7.
Remove the bottom tab from the HisPur Ni-NTA Spin Column by gently twisting. Place column into a centrifuge tube. Use 1.5, 15 or 50mL centrifuge tubes for the 0.2, 1 and 3mL spin columns, respectively.
8.
Centrifuge column at 700 × g for 2 minutes to remove storage buffer.
9.
Equilibrate column with two resin-bed volumes of Equilibration Buffer. Allow buffer to enter the resin bed.
10.
Centrifuge column at 700 × g for 2 minutes to remove buffer.
11.
Add the prepared protein extract to the column and allow it to enter the resin bed. For maximal binding, the sample can be incubated for 30 minutes at room temperature or 4°C on an end-over-end rocking platform.
12.
Centrifuge column at 700 × g for 2 minutes and collect the flow-through in a centrifuge tube.
13.
Wash resin with two resin-bed volumes of Wash Buffer. Centrifuge at 700 × g for 2 minutes and collect fraction in a centrifuge tube. Repeat this step two more times collecting each fraction in a separate centrifuge tube.
14.
Elute His-tagged proteins from the resin by adding one resin-bed volume of Elution Buffer. Centrifuge at 700 × g for 2 minutes. Repeat this step two more times, collecting each fraction in a separate tube.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
LB Medium
Place in container with chlorine solution.
N/A
Supernatant Waste
Sterilize.
N/A
Wash Buffer
Place in container with chlorine solution and sterilize.
To achieve phage recuperation (98.4%) from culture media.
Approximate time
Around 3 hours
Material
250mL of LB medium
5M HCl
50mL of mili-Q water
Overnight E. coli culture
5M NaOH
Equipment & Apparatus
Incubator with shaker (TalBoys)
Laminar flow hood (Scientific Visions)
Centrifuge (Thermo)
Oven for calculations of dry weight
4 tubes for centrifugation
Previous steps
Virus Culture. Add 200µL of E. coli ER2738 and 10µL of virus suspension (approx. 1x1010 PFUml-1) to a suspension of 200mL of LB in an Erlenmeyer flask of 500mL.
LB Medium:
10gl-1 of tryptone.
5gl-1 NaCl (pH 7.0-7.5).
5gl-1 of yeast extract.
Culture conditions:
37°C
220 rpm
16 h
Bacterial cells are removed by centrifugation (5,000 rpm) for 10 min and a second centrifugation (12,000 rpm) for 10 min.
Steps
1.
Adjust he pH of the supernatant to pH 4.2 with 5M HCl and is mixed briefly.
2.
Concentrate the virus precipitated of the 200mL culture in a 50mL tube by centrifugation (13,000 rpm) for 10min at 20°C. The supernatant is discarded.
3.
Remove the residual LB, suspend pellets in 40mL of Mili-Q water by vortexing and centrifuge (13,000 rpm) for 10min at 20°C.
4.
Dry washed pellets at 70°C in an oven for calculations of dry weight (covered with a jacket layer Bio-Shield Dupont) or suspend in 10mL Mili-Q water.
5.
Adjust the respuspended pellets pH to 7 with 5M NaOH and keep samples at 4°C.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
LB medium
Place in a container with chlorine solution
N/A
Safety Notes
Every step must be done in the hood to avoid contamination
Gloves must be worn at all times
References
Dong, D., Sutaria, S., Hwangbo, J. Y., & Chen, P. (2013). A simple and rapid method to isolate purer M13 phage by isoelectric precipitation. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 97(18), 8023– 9. doi:10.1007/s00253-013-5049-9
Anim pariatur cliche reprehenderit, enim eiusmod high life accusamus terry richardson ad squid. 3 wolf moon officia aute, non cupidatat skateboard dolor brunch. Food truck quinoa nesciunt laborum eiusmod. Brunch 3 wolf moon tempor, sunt aliqua put a bird on it squid single-origin coffee nulla assumenda shoreditch et. Nihil anim keffiyeh helvetica, craft beer labore wes anderson cred nesciunt sapiente ea proident. Ad vegan excepteur butcher vice lomo. Leggings occaecat craft beer farm-to-table, raw denim aesthetic synth nesciunt you probably haven't heard of them accusamus labore sustainable VHS.
To quantifie endotoxins by a modified Limulus Amebocyte Lysate and a synthetic color producing substrate. Detection limit of 0.005 EU/ml, concentration range of 0.005 to 1 EU/ml.
Material
Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL)
Stop Solution
E. coli endotoxin standard
Color standards
0.1N sodium hydroxide
0.1N hydrochloric acid
Equipment & Apparatus
Endotoxin free tubes and tips
Spectrometer (Thermo)
Water Bath (Thermo)
Incubator (Tal Boys)
Previous steps
Dilute test specimen using LAL Reagent Water, adjust pH to 6-8 with 0.1N sodium hydroxide or 0.1N hydrochloric acid.
Prepare 1EU/ml endotoxin solution before making standard serial dilutions. In each assay, at least four endotoxin standard solutions covering desired concentration range should be prepared to generate a standard curve. If the endotoxin concentration for the test sample is expected to be in the range of 0.01 - 0.1 EU/ml, the serial endotoxin standard solutions could be 0.1, 0.05, 0.025 and 0.01 EU/ml, respectively. If the endotoxin concentration in sample is expected in the range of 0.1 - 1 EU/ml, the serial endotoxin standard solutions could be 1, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 EU/ml, respectively.
Steps
1.
Dispense 100µL of standard or test sample into endotoxin-free vials. Mix samples for 30 minutes with a vortexer. Each test must include a blank as well as at least four endotoxin standards in duplicate. The blank sample vial contains 100 μl of LAL Reagent Water instead of test sample.
2.
Add 100 µl of reconstituted LAL to each vial. Cap the vials and mix well by swirling gently.
3.
If the endotoxin concentration in sample is expected in the range of 0.01 - 0.1 EU/ml, incubate the rack with all vials at 37°C±1°C for T1 using a water bath or heating block. If the endotoxin concentration is expected in the range of 0.1 - 1 EU/ml, incubate at 37°C±1°C for T2. T1 Time ranges from 40 to 60 minutes, and T2 Time ranges from 8 to 16 minutes.
4.
After proper incubation, add 100 µl of reconstituted chromogenic substrate solution to each vial. Cap the vials and swirl gently to mix well. Do not shake or vortex to avoid foaming. Incubate at 37°C±1°C for 6 minutes.
5.
Add 500 µl of reconstituted Color-stabilizer #1 (Stop Solution) to each vial and swirl gently to mix well. Do not shake or vortex to avoid foaming. Add 500 µl of reconstituted Color-stabilizer #2 to each vial and mix well. Finally add 500 µl of reconstituted Color-stabilizer #3 to each vial. Gently swirl each vial to mix well. Bubbles must be avoided.
6.
Read the absorbance of each reaction vial at 545 nm using distilled water as blank to adjust the photometer to zero absorbance.
Waste disposal
Waste
Place to dispose
What to avoid
LAL vials
Place in a container with chlorine solution
N/A
Endotoxin residues
Sterilize.
N/A
Safety Notes
Every step must be done in the hood to avoid contamination
Anim pariatur cliche reprehenderit, enim eiusmod high life accusamus terry richardson ad squid. 3 wolf moon officia aute, non cupidatat skateboard dolor brunch. Food truck quinoa nesciunt laborum eiusmod. Brunch 3 wolf moon tempor, sunt aliqua put a bird on it squid single-origin coffee nulla assumenda shoreditch et. Nihil anim keffiyeh helvetica, craft beer labore wes anderson cred nesciunt sapiente ea proident. Ad vegan excepteur butcher vice lomo. Leggings occaecat craft beer farm-to-table, raw denim aesthetic synth nesciunt you probably haven't heard of them accusamus labore sustainable VHS.
Anim pariatur cliche reprehenderit, enim eiusmod high life accusamus terry richardson ad squid. 3 wolf moon officia aute, non cupidatat skateboard dolor brunch. Food truck quinoa nesciunt laborum eiusmod. Brunch 3 wolf moon tempor, sunt aliqua put a bird on it squid single-origin coffee nulla assumenda shoreditch et. Nihil anim keffiyeh helvetica, craft beer labore wes anderson cred nesciunt sapiente ea proident. Ad vegan excepteur butcher vice lomo. Leggings occaecat craft beer farm-to-table, raw denim aesthetic synth nesciunt you probably haven't heard of them accusamus labore sustainable VHS.