[bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts] Rec deficient E.Coli hostcells

demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu (Borries Demeler - Biophysics) (06/22/91)

Thanks to all who have replied to my request for help with rec- hosts.
Since several people asked me to post a compilation of the replies, here they 
are:

From jmasters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Wed Jun 12 15:52:35 1991
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From: Jeffrey N Masters <jmasters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Message-Id: <9106122252.AA29919@top.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Subject: Re: E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
In-Reply-To: <1991Jun12.192034.6348@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Organization: The Ohio State University
Cc: 
Status: RO

You might consider a stratagene bug, SRB or SRB(P2). They
have deleted alot including DNA repair and claim that
the bug is the next best thing to sliced bread. Because
of the DNA repair mutation, the bug should be streaked out
weekly from glycerol stock, and the plate wraped in foil
to protect from light. An added advantage is kan resistance.

sbcC, recJ, umuC::Tn5(KanR), uvrC, thi-1, endA1, supE44
(lac), gyrA96, relA1, mcrA, delta(mrr, hsdRMS, mcrBC)
(F', proAB, lacIqZdeltaM15)

The P2 dirivative helps in cloning methylated DNA.

Good Luck

Jeff Masters



From prasher@hyatt.whoi.edu Thu Jun 13 04:54:45 1991
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From: prasher@hyatt.whoi.edu (Doug Prasher)
Message-Id: <9106131153.AA02078@hyatt.whoi.edu>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Subject: Re:  E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
Status: RO

Borries:

>Any suggestions of potentially useful hostcells would be appreciated.

Have you tried a recBC strain?  I can provide CES200, JC7623.
So long, farewell.

********************************************************************
Douglas Prasher				*  prasher@hyatt.whoi.edu
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution	*  508-457-2000 ext 2311
Biology Department			*  FAX: 508-457-2195
Woods Hole, MA 02543			*
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From bwoodman@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Thu Jun 13 09:55:55 1991
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Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 12:55:45 -0400
From: Robert H Woodman <bwoodman@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Message-Id: <9106131655.AA27607@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Subject: Re: E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
In-Reply-To: <1991Jun12.192034.6348@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Organization: The Ohio State University
Status: RO

In article <1991Jun12.192034.6348@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> you write:
>We are looking for an E. coli hostcell which prevents recombination
>events in plasmids containing many repeats of the same gene. We tried
>several recA- strains, but recombination still occured. Any suggestions
>of potentially useful hostcells would be appreciated.
>Please e-mail your help to 
>demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu

>Thank you very much, -Borries

Borries,

	Did you try DH5alpha and DH5alpha MCR from BRL?  Did you try GM48
from IBI?  If you tried those and still got recombination, then I can't
help you. 

Bob Woodman


-- 
*********************************************************************
*Robert H. "Bob" Woodman, PhD * "A job not worth doing well is not  *
*INTERNET:  woodman.1@osu.edu *  worth doing."--Salvador Luria      *
********************************************************************* 

From brutlag@cmgm.Stanford.EDU Wed Jun 12 22:19:42 1991
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From: brutlag@cmgm.Stanford.EDU (Douglas Brutlag)
Message-Id: <9106130519.AA08142@cmgm.Stanford.EDU>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Subject: Re: E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts
References: <1991Jun12.192034.6348@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Status: RO

Borries,

	You may be out of luck.  I ran into this same problem
attempting to clone tandemly repeated satellite DNAs into bacterial
plasmids.  We examined many recombination deficient strains all to no
avail.  The only solution we found that stabilized the repeats was to
have the total length of the tandemly repeated region shorter than an
average okazaki fragment.  We felt that the recombination was caused
by unequal exchange during replication.  Here are two references and
their abstracts:

Brutlag, D., Fry, K., Nelson, T. and  Hung, P. (1977).  Synthesis of
hybrid bacterial plasmids containing highly repeated satellite DNA..
Cell, 10(3), 509-19.

Hybrid plasmid molecules containing tandemly repeated Drosophila
satellite DNA were constructed using a modification of the (dA)-(dT)
homopolymer procedure of Lobban and Kaiser (1973). Recombinant
plasmids recovered after transformation of recA bacteria contained 10%
of the amount of satellite DNA present in the transforming molecules.
The cloned plasmids were not homogenous in size. Recombinant plasmids
isolated from a single colony contained populations of circular
molecules which varied both in the length of the satellite region and
in the poly(dA)-(dt) regions linking satellite and vector. While
subcloning reduced the heterogeneity of these plasmid populations,
continued cell growth caused further variations in the size of the
repeated regions. Two different simple sequence satellites of
Drosophila melanogaster (1.672 and 1.705 g/cm3) were unstable in both
recA and recBC hosts and in both pSC101 and pCR1 vectors. We propose
that this recA-independent instability of tandemly repeated sequences
is due to unequal intramolecular recombination events in replicating
DNA molecules, a mechanism analogous to sister chromatid exchange in
eucaryotes. 

Lohe, A. R. and  Brutlag, D. L. (1986).  Multiplicity of satellite DNA
sequences in Drosophila melanogaster..  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,
83(3), 696-700.

Three Drosophila melanogaster satellite DNAs (1.672, 1.686, and 1.705
g/ml in CsCl), each containing a simple sequence repeated in tandem,
were cloned in pBR322 as small fragments about 500 base pairs long.
This precaution minimized deletions, since inserts of the same size as
the fragments used for cloning were recovered in a stable form. A
homogeneous tandem array of one sequence type usually extended the
length of the insert. Eleven distinct repeat sequences were
discovered, but only one sequence was predominant in each satellite
preparation. The remaining classes were minor in amount. The repeat
unit lengths were restricted to 5, 7, or 10 base pairs, with sequences
closely related. Each sequence conforms to the expression (RRN)m(RN)n,
where R is A or G. The multiplicity of simple repeated sequences
revealed despite the small sample size suggests that numerous repeat
sequences reside in heterochromatin and that particular rules apply to
the structure of the repeating sequence.

	We also tried host mutants that altered the size of Okazaki
fragments and these had deleterious effects on the stability of the
entire plasmid.  Sorry.

Doug Brutlag



From brutlag@cmgm.Stanford.EDU Thu Jun 13 11:35:57 1991
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Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1991 11:37:13 PDT
From: Doug Brutlag <brutlag@cmgm.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Re: E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 13 Jun 91 10:08:55 PDT
Message-Id: <MacMS.2409.16838.brutlag@cmgm.stanford.edu>
Status: R

Borries,

    We found that a longer DNA repeat was stable in recA- cells (a 359 base
pair repeat and a 254 bp repeat) but we weren't sure whether this stability was
due to the nature or the length of the repeating unit. We did do an experiment
growing the cells with 16 tandem repeats of 359 base pairs for over 150
generations with repeated serial dilutions of the culture and found only a
single major deletion event late in the growth.  The references for you to look
at with respect to stability of longer repeats (254 and 259 bp) are:

Carlson, M. and  Brutlag, D. (1977).  Cloning and characterization of a complex
satellite DNA from Drosophila melanogaster.
From 21337MGR@msu.edu Thu Jun 13 18:07:27 1991
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To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
From: "Jonathan.Walton" <21337MGR@msu.edu>
Subject: E.coli host cells (rec deficient
Status: R

I've heard that SURE cells from Stratagene are excellent for propagating
"difficult" DNA.  I am about to use them to make a cosmid library in which the
DNA we are interested in has a lot of repeated DNA.

J. Walton (21337mgr@msu.bitnet) Michigan State University

From TAN@CUMULI.vmsmail.ethz.ch Fri Jun 14 02:07:06 1991
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From: TAN@CUMULI.vmsmail.ethz.ch
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Subject: recA- strain
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Status: R

Dear Borries,
    Stratagene sells their SURE strain which is uvrC umuC sbcC recJ recB
endA ... .   We have used it as the host for plasmids that contain
multiple repeats and have found it to be better than HB101 for maintaining
these plasmids.  Recombination still occurs, but less frequently.  On
the downside, the SURE strain grows very slowly.
    If you hear about other recombination deficient strains that are
effective in maintaining plasmids with multiple repeats, I would be
very interested to learn about them.
    Best regards.

Song Tan
Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics
ETH - Honggerberg
8093 Zurich
Switzerland
email:  TAN@CUMULI.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH

From @CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU:CONTRERA@MOLEBIOL.RUG.AC.BE Fri Jun 14 04:06:49 1991
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From: CONTRERA%MOLEBIOL.RUG.AC.BE@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Borries:recombination negative coli
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
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X-Envelope-To: demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu
Status: R

We have used the SURE strain from Stratagene with succes to
construct a trimer of human TNF (tumor necroasis factor).
In my experience this is the best strain for such purposes.
Best regards
R. Contreras

From AHARRIS@AC.DAL.CA Sun Jun 16 18:36:30 1991
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From: AHARRIS@AC.DAL.CA
Subject: E.coli host strains
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
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X-Envelope-To: demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu
X-Vms-To: IN%"demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu"
Status: R



	In regard to your posting on bionet, have you tried Stratagene
"Sure" cells?  They are claimed to be Rec BC defficient. We have used 
them to try to clone minisatellite sequences (unfortunately with little
success) in an attempt to stop the arrays from collapsing to a couple
of repeat units. We have yet to find a host strain that prevents deletions
in these sequences but "Sure" cells may work for you. I would be grateful
to hear if you come up with any alternative hosts. Good luck.


Andrew Harris
Marine Gene Probe Lab
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada


From macbeth@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de Mon Jun 17 16:17:59 1991
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Date: Tue, 18 Jun 91 01:17:01 +0200
From: Andreas Pahl <macbeth@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Message-Id: <9106172317.AA20874@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu (Borries Demeler - Biochem)
Subject: Re: E.coli host cells (rec deficient)
Status: RO

In article <1991Jun12.192034.6348@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> you write:
> We are looking for an E. coli hostcell which prevents recombination
> events in plasmids containing many repeats of the same gene. We tried
> several recA- strains, but recombination still occured. Any suggestions
> of potentially useful hostcells would be appreciated.
> Please e-mail your help to 
> demelerb@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu
> 
> Thank you very much, -Borries

--

Hi,

did you try Stratagenes E.coli SURE (Stop unwanted Rearrangement events or
something like this written). The cells grow rather slowly, but you might
try this one.

Tschau, Andreas

P.S. I suppose you tried normal strains like DH5alpha or so.

 
###############################################################################
Andreas Pahl                                       macbeth@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de
Institut f. Biochemie u. Molekulare Biologie   
TU Berlin
Franklinstr. 29
D-1000 Berlin 10
###############################################################################

From mytelka@enzyme.berkeley.edu Mon Jun 17 20:24:12 1991
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From: mytelka@enzyme.Berkeley.Edu (Daniel Mytelka)
Message-Id: <9106180319.AA15460@enzyme>
To: demelerb@cgrb.orst.edu
Subject: rec-
Status: RO

I would try talking to the people at Gerry Smith's lab at the Hutch in Seattle.
I got a good recA-BC- strain from them a few years back (when I was in a 
different lab).
    -Dan Mytelka