[bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts] M13 in XL1-Blue E.coli

B_FOLEY%UVMVAX@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (12/21/90)

Hi!
   I am having trouble growing M13 phage in the E.coli strain XL1-Blue
from Stratagene.  I get nice clear and dark blue plaques when plating
with this strain, but when I try to isolate ss-DNA from a 40ml culture
grown 4-6 hours (as per Maniatis manual) I get a very very low yeild
of phage particles.
    XL1-Blue has virtually the same genotype as the JM101-JM109
strains.  My titer of virus in 1ml cultures grown for 4-6 hours is
usually greater than 10 to the tenth pfu per milliliter, indicating
that it CAN propagate phage.  Has anyone else had trouble getting
ss-DNA from M13 because of minor differences in E.coli strains?
        Brian Foley
        B_FOLEY@UVMVAX.BITNET