Bacterial Growth Media - Competent Cell Preparation and Growth

SUPER-COMP Media and Transformation Salts

SUPER-COMP is an extremely rich medium that significantly increases the competency of the cells when using a simple RbCl/CaCl means of preparing competent host cells:

Dilute 1 ml of a fresh overnight culture of host cells grown in LB medium into 25 ml of 37°C SUPER-COMP media in a 500 ml flask.
Incubate cells with vigorous aeration for 1-2 hours until cells reach mid-log phase (approximately 8 x 10⁸ cells/ml, OD₆₀₀ reading 0.8 for most E. coli host cells).
Centrifuge culture in a sterile tube at 4°C to pellet cells. Resuspend pellet in 15 ml of ice cold 1X RbCl/CaCl Transformation Salts.
After 15 minutes on ice, centrifuge to pellet cells and gently resuspend in 2 ml of ice cold 1X RbCl/CaCl Transformation Salts. Keep cell suspension on ice.

Cells are now competent and are immediately ready for DNA uptake. For maximum transformation efficiency, store for 12- 24 hours at 4°C to increase competency 4-6 fold (at 48 hours they will be approximately as efficient as when first made). Competent cells can also be frozen in aliquots at -80°C after adding glycerol to 20%.

Cat #	Description	Size
3103-011 3103-014	SUPER-COMP Media 10x RbCl/CaCl Transformation Salts	100 capsules 150 ml

SOB Medium

Standard media for preparing cells for chemical transformation.

31 g (31 Capsules) per Liter
Contents/liter: 20 g tryptone, 5 g yeast extract, 0.5 g NaCl, 5 g MgSO₄•7H₂O

Cat #		Size
Powder
3030-012 3030-022		227 g (0.5 lb) 454 g (1 lb)
Capsules
3030-011 3030-021		227 g (0.5 lb) 454 g (1 lb)

SOC Medium

SOC is a special medium for incubating competent cells immediately after transformation to allow expression of transferred resistance genes before exposing cells to selective conditions.

31 g per liter
Contents/liter: SOB, 20 mM glucose

Cat #		Size
Powder
3031-012		227 g (0.5 lb)
Liquid
3031-014		10 ml

Transform & Grow™ Bacterial Transformation Kit

No Heat Shock Required
Transform-It™ Solution is Ready-to-Use
Transform Plasmids, Ligations, and Cosmids
Store Competent Cells 10 Weeks or Longer
More Reliable than “Do-it-Yourself” Methods
Easy Procedure with Minimal Hands-On Time

The Transform & Grow™ Bacterial Transformation Kit provides a simple and efficient method for the preparation, transforma-tion and storage of competent E. coli cells. Bacterial cells are grown to mid-log phase at 37°C,

pelleted and resuspended in Transform-It™ Solution. This unique buffer enables the cells to become immediately available for transformation and permits freezing the cells for future use without further preparation. The competent cells remain stable at -70°C for at least 10 weeks. The Transform & Grow™ Bacterial Transformation Kit eliminates the requirement for heat shock and prepares competent cells within two and a half hours with only 30 minutes of hands-on manipulation. The kit includes Transform-It™ Solution, SUPER-COMP Media and Roll & Grow^® Plating Beads to prepare competent cells with a reliable and reproducible transformation efficiency of 2–8 x10⁶ transformants per µg of supercoiled plasmid DNA. Reagents for 50 transformations are provided.

Kit Components: Transform-It™ Solution, SUPER-COMP Media, Roll & Grow^® Plating Beads

Cat #	Description	Size
2150-200	Transform & Grow™ Bacterial Transformation Kit	50 transformations