Hello,
I have been getting mucoid transformants of e.coli after plasmid transformation. It happened twice with two different plasmids (I know that both plasmids are not toxic) and I have transformed this strain before without mucoidy. The strain was not mucoid prior to the transformation. Has anyone encountered this before?
I read up something about mucoid colonies of Escherichia coli many years ago. You can check it here: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1699-0463.1949.tb00794.x
Yes! E. coli can develop about three different kinds of consistency depending on media. Specifically, mucoid colonies of E. coli would come up in Tergitol-7 medium. See the attached for details. Article Colonial Morphology of Escherichia coli on Tergitol-7 Medium
Article Occurrence and characterisation of Uropathogenic Escherichia...
. it is also possible that transforming genes have conferred on the E. coli ability to produce capsules. See the attached for details.
Thank you for the references, however, I know that the genes transformed do not give the phenotype (I have the plasmids already transformed somewhere else) also the cells are recovered on LB media + selection.
It may be something as simple as the culture used to make that batch of competent cells had a large population of mucoid cells already. You might just try a different batch of competent cells made from a single colony.
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