Team:Caltech/Notebook/material/General Protocols
From 2012.igem.org
General Protocols
Making electrocompetent cells
PREPARATION:
- Sterile 1 liter SOB medium (20 g Tryptone, 5 g Yeast Extract, 0.584 g NaCl, 0.186 g KCl. pH = 7.0)
- 2 Sterile 500 ml centrifuge bottles
- Sterile 10% Glycerol (~ 600 ml)
- Sterile eppendorf
- 2 Sterile Falcon tubes
PROCEDURE
Maintain sterile conditions throughout. Grow culture at 30ºC shaking until OD600 = 0.5-0.7 (takes 4-5 hours). Chill cells at 4ºC for 30 minutes. Also chill centrifuge bottles, 10% glycerol, Falcon tubes and eppendorf tubes. From this step onwards, everything must be kept on ice. Transfer 250 ml culture into each of the two centrifuge bottles. Spin at 5000 g for 10 minutes at 4ºC. Discard supernatant and repeat this step with rest of the 500 ml culture. Resuspend pellet in each of the two centrifuge bottles in 50 ml 10% glycerol. Transfer to 2 sterile 50 ml Falcon tubes. Vortexing helps in resuspension. Centrifuge at 5000 g for 10 minutes at 4ºC. Discard supernatant. Resuspend pellet in each of the two Falcon tubes in 50 ml 10% glycerol by vortexing – WASH 1. Repeat step 5 for 4 more times for a total of 5 washes. Discard supernatant and resuspend in the residual 10% glycerol. Aliquot 50 microliter into each of the eppendorf tubes. Store at -80ºC.
Transformation by Electroporation
- Add 1 ul of DNA to 50 ul of competent cells on ice.
- Pipette up and down and chill on ice.
- Transfer to a pre-chilled cuvette.
- Chill on ice for 2 minutes.
- Put cuvette into electroporater machine and slide it in.
- Press on the pulse button once and wait until you hear a beep sound.
- Take cuvette out and quickly dilute with 1 mL of LB or SOC.
- Transfer DNA into falcon tube and shake in 37C for 1 hour.
- Plate 100 ul of culture onto appropriate antibiotic plate.
- Leave plate(s) in 37C overnight.
Transformation from DNA distribution plate
PREPARATION:
- 10 ul of sterile water
- 50 ul of competent cells
- 500 ul of LB
PROCEDURE:
- Find which well your DNA is in.
- Poke with a pipette tip.
- Put 10 ul of sterile water into the well, pipetting up and down until the DNA turns red/orange.
- Wait 5 minutes to incubate.
- Take 10 ul of DNA out of the well and place into a sterile eppendorf tube, chill on ice.
- Add 50 ul of competent cells to empty sterile eppendorf tubes with your DNA in them, chill on ice with competent cells on ice at all times.
- Put 1 ul of red DNA into the eppendorf tubes with the competent cell.
- Chill on ice for 15 minutes.
- Heat shock at 42C for 45 seconds.
- Immediately chill on ice for 2 minutes.
- Add 500 ul of LB into falcon tubes.
- Put DNA into falcon tubes with LB.
- Shake in 37C for 1 hour.
- Plate on antibiotic appropriate plates.
- Leave plates upside down in plates in 37 overnight
Cell Transformation
- 1 uL of DNA from plasmid
- 2 uL for the gibson
- to 50 uL cells
- ice for 15-30 mins
- 42C for 45 s
- ice for 2 mins
- add 500 uL of LB
- 37 for an hour
- plate 200
Gene Assembly
- Get the Amino Acid sequence of the gene you want to assemble
- Submit a job for oligonucleotides to assemble the gene at the DNAworks website (http://helixweb.nih.gov/dnaworks/) settings I use are as follows:
- Standard Organism: E. coli
- Annealing Temperature: 58
- Oligo Length: 60 nt (check Random)
- Number of Solutions: 10
- Check no gaps in assembly! (important)
- Restriction Site Screen: select the Biobrick Enzymes
- Sequences (protein), paste amino acid sequence
Overlay Plates
Overlay plates are made out of two layers. The bottom layer is made of minimal media agar with no carbon source. The top layer is made of minimal media mixed with a chosen carbon source. Bacterial samples are grown in between the two layers.
Bottom Minimal Media Agar Layer
Makes 100 mL of agar mix, approximately 5 plates.
PREPARATION:
- 70 mL sterilized water
- 10 mL phosphate buffer
- 10 mL salt solution 1
- 10 mL salt solution 2
- 100 uL trace minerals
- 1.5 g of bacto agar
PROCEDURE:
- Mix all solutions and agar together
- Autoclave, making sure to place mixture into a water bath and cracking the lid of the container
- Let cool in 50ºC water bath for about 30 minutes
- Pour into plates
- Let plates set at room temperature overnight
- Gently apply bacterial sample to the plates
Top Layer
Makes a 0.2% carbon source overlay layer, approximately 50 mL. If the bacterial sample was in an aqueous solution, be sure to allow the plate to dry out before applying the top layer. Alternatively, the top layer could be made from a solution mix of just the water, agarose, and the chosen carbon source.
PREPARATION:
- 35 mL sterilized water
- 5 mL phosphate buffer
- 5 mL salt solution 1
- 5 mL salt solution 2
- 50 uL trace minerals
- 0.75 g of low melting point temperature bacto agarose
- 0.10 mL of chosen carbon source
PROCEDURE:
- Mix everything but the carbon source together
- Autoclave, making sure to place mixture into a water bath and cracking the lid of the container
- Let cool in 37ºC water bath for 30 minutes
- Mix carbon source into cooled mixture
- Pour about 5 mL into each plate
Enrichment cultures
Minimal media recipe for 100 mL:
- 70 mL water
- 10 mL 10x phosphate buffer
- 10 mL each salt soln (also 10x)
- 100 uL trace mineral mix
Preparation
- 5 mL minimal media in each tube
- Add carbon source (25 mg alginate, vanillin, lignin; 10 mg lignin; 20 uL polystyrene, teflon)
- 1 mL from pond sample or previous culture (for later dilutions, 100 uL from previous culture)
- Place in room-temp shaker
- Redilute every 2-3 days
Rich Media (RM)
Makes 400 mL of agar mix, approximately 1 sleeve of plates.
PREPARATION:
- 400 mL sterilized water
- 8 g glucose (40 mL from 20% stock solution)
- 4 g yeast extract
- 0.8 g KH2PO4
- 8 g bacto-agar (for plates; leave out agar for liquid rich media)
PROCEDURE:
- Mix everything except the glucose together
- Autoclave, making sure to place mixture into a water bath and cracking the lid of the container
- Let cool in 50ºC water bath for about 30 minutes
- Stir in the glucose
- Pour into plates
- Let plates set at room temperature overnight
- Gently apply bacterial sample to the plates
Makes 1 L of agar mix, approximately 2 sleeves of plates.
PREPARATION:
- 10g tryptone
- 10g NaCl
- 5g yeast extract
- 15g agar (not needed if making only media)
- 1 L water
PROCEDURE:
- Mix everything together, add water to volume
- Autoclave, making sure to place mixture into a water bath and cracking the lid of the container
- Let cool in 50ºC water bath for about 30 minutes
- Stir in the antibiotics as needed
- Pour into plates
- Let plates set at room temperature overnight
- Gently apply bacterial sample to the plates
Colony PCR
PREPARATION
PROCEDURE:
- Take a colony from a plate and put in 20uL dH2O in PCR tube (at least one colony from each plate)
- Restreak on new plate using the same pipette tip (or wooden stick)
- Boil tube content in PCR at 98C for 10min (optional)
- Use that as template for colony PCR (25uL reaction)
- Mix in PCR tube:
dH2O | 8.5 μL |
template | 1 μL |
forward primer | 10 μM 1.25 μL |
reverse primer | 10 μM 1.25 μL |
GoTaq | 12.5 μL |