Summary
A highly efficient electroporation system for Enterococcus faecalis was developed by systematically optimizing different parameters. One parameter found to be particularly critical for electroporation was cultivation of E. faecalis in medium containing a high glycine concentration, prior to electroporation. Osmotic stabilization of cells with 0.5 M sucrose was also found to be critical during glycine treatment. 106 transformants per microgram of plasmid DNA were consistently obtained within 48 h. Electrocompetent preparations of E. faecalis could be stored at −70° C without loss of competence.
References
Behnke D, Gilmore MS (1981) Location of antibiotic resistance determinants, copy control and replication functions on the double-selective streptococcal cloning vector pGB301. Mol Gen Genet 184:115–120
Chassy BM, Flickinger JL (1987) Transformation of Lactobacillus casei by electroporation. FEMS Microbiol Lett 44:173–177
Clewell DB, Fitzgerald GF, Dempsey L, Pearce LE, An FY, White BA, Yagi Y, Gawron-Burke C (1985) Streptococcal conjugation: plasmids, sex pheromones, and conjugative transposons. In: Mergenhagem S, Rosen B (eds) Molecular Basis for Oral Microbial Adhesions, American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC
Delorme E (1989) Transformation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by electroporation. Appl Environ Microbiol 55:2242–2246
Dower WJ, Miller JF, Ragsdale CW (1988) High efficiency transformation of E. coli by high voltage electroporation. Nucleic Acids Res 16:6127–6145
Fiedler S, Wirth R (1988) Transformation of bacteria with plasmid DNA by electroporation. Anal Biochem 170:38–44
Holo H, Nes IF (1989) High efficiency transformation by electroporation of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris grown with glycine in osmotically stabilized media. Appl Environ Microbiol 55:3119–3123
Ike Y, Craig RA, White BA, Yagi Y, Clewell DB (1983) Modification of Streptococcus faecalis sex pheromones after acquisition of plasmid DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:5369–5373
Ike Y, Clewell DB, Segarra RA, Gilmore MS (1990) Genetic analysis of the pAD1 hemolysin/bacteriocin determinant: Tn917 insertional mutagenesis and cloning. J Bacteriol 172:155–163
Jacob AE, Hobbs SJ (1974) Conjugal transfer of plasmid-borne multiple antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus faecalis var. zymogenes. J Bacteriol 117:360–372
Macrina FL, Wood PH, Jones KR (1980) Simple method for demonstrating small plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid molecules in oral streptococci. Appl Environ Microbiol 39:1070–1073
Maniatis T, Fritsch EF, Sambrook J (1982) Molecular cloning: A laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York
McIntyre DA, Harlander SK (1989) Genetic transformation of intact Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis by high-voltage electroporation. Appl Environ Microbiol 55:604–610
McNally MA, Lebkowski JS, Okarma TB, Bernard-Lerch L (1988) Optimizing electroporation parameters for a variety of human hematopoietic cell lines. BioTechniques 6:882–886
Mercenier A, Chassy BM (1988) Strategies for the development of bacterial transformation systems. Biochimie 70:503–517
Miller JF, Dower WJ, Tompkins LS (1988) High-voltage electroporation of bacteria: Genetic transformation of Campylobacter jejuni with plasmid DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:856–860
Powell IB, Achen MG, Hillier AJ, Davidson BE (1988) A simple and rapid method for genetic transformation of lactic streptococci by electroporation. Appl Environ Microbiol 54:655–660
Somkuti GA, Steinberg DH (1988) Genetic transformation of Streptococcus thermophilus by electroporation. Biochemie 70:579–585
Terzaghi BE, Sandine WE (1975) Improved medium for lactic streptococci and their bacteriophages. Appl Environ Microbiol 26:807–813
Ward M, Kodama KJ, Wilson LJ (1989) Transformation of Aspergillus awamori and A. niger by electroporation. Exp Mycology 13:289–293
Weaver KE, Clewell DB (1988) Regulation of the pAD1 sex peromone response in Enterococcus faecalis: Construction and characterization of laczZ transcriptional fusions in key control region of the plasmid. J Bacteriol 170:4343–4352
Wirth R, An FY, Clewell DB (1986) Highly efficient protoplast transformation system for Streptococcus faecalis and a new Escherichia coli-S. faecalis shuttle vector. J Bacteriol 165:831–836
Yagi Y, Clewell DB (1980) Recombination-deficient mutant of Streptococcus faecalis. J Bacteriol 143:966–970
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by W. Goebel
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cruz-Rodz, A.L., Gilmore, M.S. High efficiency introduction of plasmid DNA into glycine treated Enterococcus faecalis by electroporation. Molec. Gen. Genet. 224, 152–154 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00259462
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00259462