"competentcy" of my method - (Mar/12/2010 )
hi,
I transformed 3 identical plasmids into same strain of competent cells and incubated overnight at 37 degrees. I came back the following morning and found that only one of my plates contained colonies.
Could the failure of the other plates be to the competent cells i happened to transform them in? or prehaps during the tranformation process after spinning the bacteria cells down (after 20 mins in shaking incubator) i failed to resuspend the pellet in SOC medium.. could someone prehaps add an opinion?
Danke!
Anything could happen. But I observed that thawed competent cells are settled down and when you pippete them from the top there can be minimum of cells in the first aliquots. To avoid this, pippete them up and down gently before aliqoting.
If you are using single-packaged competent cells ignore this post entirely.
just a quick question: single packaged competent cells, are those competent cells packed 1 by 1 ? How do they do that and whats the point of working with 1 cell?
It's not one cell 
It is one aliquote (for example 20 ul) of competent cell. You add just your ligation in every single tube.
BTW I never buy competent cells, it's sooo expensive - I do my own DH5a this way (http://cse.fra.affrc.go.jp/ksaitoh/CompetentCell-e.html) and it works great. I store them at -80°C and they are good for at least 4 months.
BTW I never buy competent cells, it's sooo expensive - I do my own DH5a this way (http://cse.fra.affrc.go.jp/ksaitoh/CompetentCell-e.html) and it works great. I store them at -80°C and they are good for at least 4 months.
Ah I see, thanks.
vladooo on Mar 23 2010, 06:49 PM said:
If you are using single-packaged competent cells ignore this post entirely.
One more question: why isnt this a problem in single packaged cells? Arent they also at the bottom? When you buy them, they have been stored for long too , so havent then settled down too?
Yes they have. But it's about the total number in one aliqout. It'll be the same. If you aliqout them on your own it can happen (tom em as well) that the first aliqouts contain less cells ergo less cell that can be transformed ergo less colonies on a plate.