Transfection of SOLR strain cells with Mass Excised Plasmid For Archiving And Screening

Following Mass Excission the transfection efficiency of the phagemid Bluescript stock, packaged as filamentous phage particles, needs to be determined by titration against freshly grown SOLR cells. This is due to the high efficiency of the excision process and the requirement to achieve single-colony isolation for archiving and screening.(This stock should be stable for up to 6 months at 4¡C.)

Preparation Of Host Cells

DAY 1-Prepare SOLR colony streaked plates

Revive the host cells by streaking from ice splinters from frozen bacterial glycerol stock with a sterile loop onto plates containing LB agar and appropriate antibiotic.
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Bacterial
    Agar plate for   Medium for      Medium for bacterial cultures for
strain        bacterial streak glycerol stock  titering phage (final concentration)
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SOLR strain   LB-kanamycin
     LB-kanamycin    LB without supplements
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DAY 2-Prepare overnight SOLR cell cultures

Bacterial cultures should be started from a fresh colony plate (<7days old) using a single colony.

1 Inoculate 50ml of LB broth (without supplements) with a single colony of SOLR cells.

2 Grow overnight cultures of the SOLR cells with vigorous shaking at 30 -37 C.
The lower temperature ensures that the cells will not overgrow.

3 Prepare 16 LB-ampicillin4 agar plates

DAY 3-Titration of phagemid stock: using freshly prepared SOLR cells.

1 Gently spin down the SOLR cells (1000 x g for 10 minutes).

2 Resuspend the cells in ~15 ml of 10 mM MgSO4. Do not vortex.

3 Dilute SOLR cells to an OD600 of 1.0 in 10 mM MgSO4.
Highest efficiencies are obtained from freshly prepared cells.

4 Prewarm and dry LB-ampicillin agar plates ready for plating in step 9

5 Make x2 working dilutions of phagemid stock => 1:10 and 1:1000 with LB broth

6 Add 400 microl of freshly grown SOLR cells from step 3 (OD600= 1.0) to x8 1.5ml tubes.

7 Add working dilutions of phagemid stock to each tube as follows (volumes to add in microlitres)

phagemid stock dilution

tube #

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1:10

20

10

2

1

1:1000

20

10

2

1

8 Incubate the tubes at 37 C for 15 minutes.

9 Add 200 microl from each tube to replicate LB-ampicillin agar plates (50 microglml)
and distribute evenly over plate surface with sterile glass spreader
Allow excess media to dry before inverting plates

10 Incubate overnight at 37 C.

Colonies appearing on the plate contain the Bluescript double-stranded phagemid with the cloned DNA insert. Helper phage will not grow, since helper phage is unable to replicate in Su- (nonsuppressing) SOLR strains and does not contain ampicillin-resistance genes. SOLR cells are also resistant to lambda phage infection, thus preventing lambda phage contamination after excision.

DAY 4-DETERMINATION OF TITRE OF MASS EXCISSION SUPERNATANT

Calculation of titre

tube #

microlitres of phage
supernatant added

number of
colonies

factor

titer per ml

total number
of phage

1

1

1 x 10 e3

2

0.5

2 x 10 e3

3

0.1

1 x 10 e4

4

0.05

2 x 10 e4

5

0.01

1 x 10 e5

6

0.005

2 x 10 e5

7

0.001

1 x 10 e6

8

0.0005

2 x 10 e6


MEDIA

LB BROTH (PER LITER)
10g of NaCl
10g of bacto-tryptone
5g of bacto-yeast extract
Adjust to pH 7.0 with 5 N NaOH
Add deionized H2O to a final vol. of 1 liter
Autoclave
Allow medium to cool to 55 C before addition of antibiotic

LB AGAR (PER LITER)
10g of NaCl
10g of bacto-tryptone
5g of bacto-yeast extract
15g of bacto-agar
Adjust pH to 7.0 with 5 N NaOH
Add deionized H2O to a final vol. of 1 liter
Autoclave
Allow medium to cool to 55 C before addition of antibiotic
Pour into petri dishes(~25 ml/100-mm plate)

[Kanamycin] 50 microg/ml

[Ampicillin] 50 microg/ml