Streamlined Preparation of Cells for Cloning

A new method quickly prepares chemically competent cells from overnight cultures at efficiencies suitable for standard cloning purposes.

This new method, called RapidTransit, employs a tranformation buffer, which quickly prepares cells for uptake of DNA without the traditional heat shock step. The method is especially useful for large format studies that require large amounts of chemically competent cells. It may also be used to prepare and transform cells from a variety of Escherichia coli strains such as K12 cloning strains and B strains used for recombinant protein expression. With RapidTransit, researchers are not limited to commercial strains if convenience is required. The system eliminates complex buffer preparation and the lengthy incubation periods of traditional methods while reducing the number of procedural steps. The RapidTransit Transformation Kit is the product of Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (St. Louis, MO, USA).

"RapidTransit complements our current line of chemically competent and electrocompetent cells while providing researchers who require specialized strains or economical formats with a convenient alternative,” said Keith Joliff, manager of global strategic marketing at Sigma-Aldrich.