Hello,

You can use Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) instead of Lithium Acetate (LiAc). Lithium Chloride (LiCl) can also be used, but it reduces the efficiency. 

I assume the yeast you are going to use, is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There are five methods by which you can perform yeast transformation. They are:

1. Spheroplast method

2. Lithium method

3. Electroporation

4. Biolistic method &

5. Glass bead method

It has been found that, among the different monovalent cations used, Lithium is the most effective for yeast transformation (Ito et. al., 1983). However, as you have mentioned, for the electroporation technique, LiAc treatment is an optional step. This technique was first implemented by Hashimoto and colleagues (Hashimoto et. al.,1985) and later improved by Thompson et. al. by the addition of LiAc and DTT. Adding the two components improved the transformation efficiency by many folds in S. cerevisiae.

Much later, a protocol was developed where Calcium Chloride was used for electroporation (Suga and Hatakeyama, 2003). I think this is the answer you are looking for.

I have attached all papers for your reference. Also find attached, a recent review (Kawai et. al. 2010) that discusses transformation techniques for S. cerevisiae and other fungi. Hope this helps.

Hi!

No it's not an optional step and I don't know of any equivalent you could use... sorry, you might have to wait for it to arrive!

DMSO is an optional step to increase efficiency. Check my protocol published on Researchgate, it really works well!

Good luck!

Hi, me too I do not know an alternative reagent to substitute LiAc.

You could use the more transformation efficient spheroplast protocol, it takes a bit longer and uses more solutions plus a lot of Sorbitol, but once you have the solutions set up it is the more efficient protocol, see for example: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Spheroplast_Transformation.

In the pichia transformation LiCl serves the same purpose as LiAc in yeast. But I am not sure if you can use the same for S. cerevisiae

Hello,

You can use Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) instead of Lithium Acetate (LiAc). Lithium Chloride (LiCl) can also be used, but it reduces the efficiency. 

I assume the yeast you are going to use, is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There are five methods by which you can perform yeast transformation. They are:

1. Spheroplast method

2. Lithium method

3. Electroporation

4. Biolistic method &

5. Glass bead method

It has been found that, among the different monovalent cations used, Lithium is the most effective for yeast transformation (Ito et. al., 1983). However, as you have mentioned, for the electroporation technique, LiAc treatment is an optional step. This technique was first implemented by Hashimoto and colleagues (Hashimoto et. al.,1985) and later improved by Thompson et. al. by the addition of LiAc and DTT. Adding the two components improved the transformation efficiency by many folds in S. cerevisiae.

Much later, a protocol was developed where Calcium Chloride was used for electroporation (Suga and Hatakeyama, 2003). I think this is the answer you are looking for.

I have attached all papers for your reference. Also find attached, a recent review (Kawai et. al. 2010) that discusses transformation techniques for S. cerevisiae and other fungi. Hope this helps.