For conducting PCR-cloning, a high fidelity polymerase is required to keep accuracy of PCR amplification. In general, high fidelity enzymes vetting correctness such as SMO-HiFi, Pfu, KOD, and Phusion are associated with proofreading activity which results in blunt ends of PCR products. GetClone™ Vector can directly accept blunt-ended PCR fragments for ligation, without the need of extra step of DNA phosphorylation. As contrast, T-vector used for TA-cloning requires DNA fragment with an extra Adenosine nucleotide added at the 3’ end which is usually generated by non-proofreading and thus less fidelity DNA polymerase like Taq polymerase. 

It depends on the length of sticky end. Generally, sticky end is easier to perform in comparison to blunt end ligation. However, a sticky end with only one extruding base as seen in the TA-cloning is probably more difficult for ligation as compared with a blunt end (also referred to NEB for NciI or EcoNI instructions). 

In most cases of using GetClone™ Vector, colonies grown on a plate with appropriate antibiotics should be the positive clones because a bacterium accepting an empty GetClone™ Vector without an insert would fail to proliferate. To further identify the clones, it is recommended to use Colony-PCR method. In brief, the colony grown on the plate is directly picked up with a toothpick and then mixed into a PCR premix (ex.: SMOBIO TP1200 or TP1260) and PCR amplification is conducted in the thermal cycler with primers (pGET-For and pGET-Rev) which are also provided with GetClone™ Vector. The expected length of PCR product should be the one of the insert plus 152 bp. 

Please use the GetClone™ Vector primers for sequence service.

Several reasons can be stated as follows: 

Reason 1: Check your insert. If it is not blunt-end, it cannot be ligated with GetClone™ vector, as this may result in false positive results for majority of the colonies. 

Reason 2: When DNA concentration of the insert is too low, the successful ligates are largely reduced in proportion, leading to an overwhelming vector background. The solution is to increase the concentration of the insert DNA. 

Reason 3: If the target DNA fragments for cloning are large, such as 10kb or more, transformation efficiency depreciates after ligation. This results in fewer colonies having insertions. Therefore, it is suggested to increase the insert DNA concentration and reduce the concentration of vector DNA to re-execute ligation. It will also enhance chances to get the right clone by using higher efficiency competent cells. 

Reason 4: Non-specific PCR products or/and primer dimers which might occurred during PCR amplification are supposed to compete or interfere the ligation of target PCR fragment with the vector, and thus reducing the number of correct clones. Before conducting ligation, it is therefore recommended to isolate the desired DNA fragment from other non-specific DNA by gel extraction.

This is probably due to generation of mutation on the vector DNA during cloning. A mutated lethal gene can lead to false positive colonies, despite that the occurrence is rare. 

The GFP report gene was PCR amplified as the insert to the GetClone™ Vector. After ligation and transformation, positive clones (with insert) presenting green fluorescence on the plate were calculated in number, and more than 90% of total colonies did shine as observed in B-Box, demonstrating the high cloning efficiency of GetClone™ Vector .

Yes, we do have the data as shown below. Eight colonies were picked up for plasmid isolation and PCR analysis. It was observed that seven out of eight colonies (87.5%) were positive clones which could be verified by successful amplification of 12.1 kb fragments.

Champion™  E. coli Transformation Kit are specially designed for making E.coli competent cells. Therefore, Champion™  E. coli Transformation Kit is not recommend to used for make other bacterial competent cells.

Most E.coli strains are compatible to Champion™  E. coli Transformation Kit. However, different E. coli strains vary in their ability to be transformed with DNA.

Efficiency of strains and their derivatives is listed below, when prepared with the Champion™ E. coli Transformation Kit.

E. coli  strains	Efficiency (cfu/ μ g)
JM109	~5x108
XL-1 blue	~3x108
DH5 α	~5x108
stbl 3	~2x108
BL21	~1x107
Rosetta 2	~1x107

*E. coli strains are liquid cultured following standard protocol for preparation of competent cells (at 25°C until OD600 reached ~0.5). 

When Champion™ competent cells are thawed dispensed in aliquots and refrozen within 1 min, the transformation efficiency will be 10~20% reduced compared to the first time use.

Using circulating water can reduce the thawing time. Less thawing time shows higher efficiency than long thawing time.

The bending glass rod shows best efficiency and the plating loop show less efficiency than other method. For handle a lot samples at the same time the plating beads are recommended.

One second vortex provides more reliable transformation efficiency (1.1 times compare with mixed by finger tapping).

Heat shock treatment will enhance the efficiency about 1~2X versus non-heat shock method.