Summary
Intact and osmotically sensitive cells of Corynebacterium glutamicum can be efficiently transformed by electroporation. This was shown by using the plasmid vector pUL-330 (5.2 kb), containing the kanamycin resistance gene of transposon Tn5. The following electric parameters yielded efficient transformation. For intact cells: one exponentially decaying field pulse \(E = E_0 exp( - t/\tau _E )\) with time constants \(\tau _E = 450 - 500\) and with initial field intensities of E 0=35–40 kV cm-1; prepulse temperature 20°C. Cell regeneration (survival) was 100%–80%. Transformation efficiency can be increased by an additional freeze and thaw cycle of the cells, prior to electroporation. Lysozyme treated cells (osmotically sensitive) were transformed with three successive pulses of E 0=25–30 kV cm-1. Cell regeneration under these conditions was found to be 20–30%. The optimum yield of transformants/μg plasmid-DNA was 3×103 for intact cells, 2×104 for intact cells which were frozen and thawed twice and 7×104 for osmotically sensitive cells if the cell suspension was pulsed at a cell density of 1–3×108/ml and at a DNA concentration of 0.2 μg/ml up to ≤2 μg/ml. The data obtained for osmotically sensitive cells suggest that the temperature increase accompanying the electric field pulse enhances colony formation and transformation efficiency if the initial prepulse temperature is ≥20°C, although regeneration of electroporated C. glutamicum cells starts to decrease at temperatures≥20°C.
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Wolf, H., Pühler, A. & Neumann, E. Electrotransformation of intact and osmotically sensitive cells of Corynebacterium glutamicum . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 30, 283–289 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256219
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256219