How to ask the author for an E. coli strains used in his paper? - (Jan/14/2010 )

hi, all. Recently I read an article about a temperature sensitive E. coli strain. This strain was constructed and screened in the author's lab, and I want to see if my gene could rescue the temperature sensitive phenotype of the strain. Can I just email the author and ask for it? Is it too rude? And if there is some other procedures I can follow, please let me know.Thx.

You can always ask.. there is no other way to get it, if they (the authors) created this strain.
If you ask gently, they might help you.

If its in the interest of your research, you can email the authors with the reasons why you want to research their strain and explain them what you are doing etc...

There are 3 responses then:
- None
- an answer telling you they will not or can not help you
- an answer that they indeed can help you

yeah........theres nothing rude in requesting.........in fact, some of them are actually nice and do help....my labmate had sent such a request once, to a scientist and he promptly sent her the clone she required......just frame a properly worded letter..........and hope for the best...

Also, don't be afraid to kiss a little a$$ in your initial contact. Nothing too over-the-top, but phrases like:
Dear ___________, I read with great interest your paper...

A little flattery can't hurt your cause.

in certain journals the authors are engaged to make their strains/plasmids/whatever publicly available upon request!

Regards,
p

ok, thanks a lot! I will try!

The e-mail of the one of the authors is listed in the article for just such cases.