pBAD TOPO™ TA Expression Kit

We do not recommend storing competent E. coli strains in liquid nitrogen as the extreme temperature can be harmful to the cells. Also, the plastic storage vials are not intended to withstand the extreme temperature and may crack or break.

We recommend storing our competent E. coli strains at -80°C. Storage at warmer temperatures, even for a brief period of time, will significantly decrease transformation efficiency.

While the amount of L-arabinose can vary depending on your expression experiment, we suggest performing a pilot expression experiment with varying amounts of L-arabinose from 0.00002% to 0.2%.

Top10

Advantages:
- Saves time, can go directly from cloning to expression.
- The glycerol stock is more stable because these strains are endA- and recA-.

Disdvantages:
- This strain is not protease-deficient. Therefore, the protein may be degraded.

LMG194

Advantages:
- Grows well in minimal media, except M9.
-Have to transform the plasmid into the cells just for expression.
-RM medium with glucose to ensure low basal level of protein.

Disadvantages:
- Not protease-deficient. Therefore, the protein may be degraded.
- The glycerol stock may not be stable because this cell strain is not recA- or endA-.

We recommend using a competent cell strain that is araBADC- and araEFGH+, allowing transportation of L-arabinose, but not metabolizing it. This is important for expression studies, as the level of L-arabinose will be constant inside the cell and will not decrease over time. We offer our TOP10 competent cells, or our LMG194 E. coli strain.