David writes...
Fellow micronetters, other than ethidium bromide, how does one cure a strain
of its plasmids, when the plasmids lack antibiotic resistance markers to start
with?
............................................................................
It is very difficult to come up with a single solution to cure a strain of
its plasmids. What is needed is some mehtod to put the cell under stress
either physically or chemically. For a general paper on curing methods,
including both physical and chemical please see:
Stanisich V.A. (1988) Identification of plasmids at the genetic level. In
'Methods in Microbiology' 21 (J. Grinsted & P.M. Bennet eds.) Chap 2, 17-21.
London: Academic Press.
I found that novobiocin is very good for pBR322, but not for pACYC184 which
reiterates what is said above. Although it is an old paper, it is a good one
and see:
Wiesser, J. & Wiedemann, B. (1985) Elimination of plasmids by new
4-quinolones. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 28, 700-702.
I hope this helps some
Dr Roy Goodacre E-mail: rrg at aber.ac.uk
FTP: 144.124.112.36 Voice: +44 970 623111 ext 4187 (work)
Fax: +44 970 622354 +44 974 241236 (home)
URL: http://gepasi.dbs.aber.ac.uk/roy/chemom.htm
Snail: Inst Biol Sci, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, UK
