I'm making a yeast genomic library and want to transform and amplify it in one of your competent cell strains. What genotype features should I look for in choosing a good strain?
We would recommend a mcr/mrr- strain, which prevents restriction of methylated eukaryotic DNA in the E. coli host. We would also recommend using a T1R strain, as T1 is a common contaminant in genomic/cDNA libraries.
Which is your fastest growing strain of competent cells?
Our Mach1-T1R competent cells grow faster than any of our common cloning strains. It has a doubling time of 54 minutes versus doubling times in excess of 70 mins for standard cloning strains, such as DH5α cells. Colonies of Mach1-T1R begin to be visible on a plate 8 hours after plating the transformation mix at 37 degrees C. It can be mini-prepped from 1.5 mL cultures in as little as 4 hours at 37 degrees C after inoculation with a single large overnight colony.
What advantages do your Stbl2 cells offer over other cloning strains?
There are other strains available that may function similarly to Stbl2 cells in stabilizing inserts or vectors with repeated DNA sequences. However, one advantage of Stbl2 cells over many similar strains is that they are sensitive to Kanamycin, so you can use Stbl2 to propagate plasmids containing a Kanamycin resistance marker.