Can E coli cells undergo multiple rounds of electroporation? And does this depend on what strain? The cells are electrocompetent and I will need to do multiple rounds but couldn't find info on whether or not this is feasible. Does anyone have experience with this?
It is not clear what you mean by multiple rounds. If you intend to electroporate with a plasmid, select a transformant, grow it up, make competent and then electroporate again with a different plasmid, then the answer is yes, that is not a problem.
But if you intend to use the same cells and zap them sequentially, then I am not sure, I've never heard that being done.
But you can use two plasmids at the same time in one transformation/electroporation. The frequency will be down for cells getting both plasmids but it will work fine if you have good selections.
Also keep in mind that each time transformation causes 50% of living cells to die, and after two times if you are lucky and don't experience arch, you will have a low rate of transformation. So, as a result, I recommend that, as Michael said, do the transformation with two different plasmids at the same time, or transform the first plasmid once, and after selecting the positive colonies, transform the second plasmid.
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