I prepared electrocompetents of the AGL1 strain following the "water" protocol: the bacterial culture was resuspended in water, subjected to two washes in water, one in 10% glycerol, and finally resuspended in 10% glycerol. When I attempt to electroporate, arcing occurs. This happens even when I use only the competent cells without the plasmid, indicating that it is not due to the presence of salts in the miniprep.
Make sure that the water you use is distilled or miliQ, no tap water should be used for washing or diluting the glycerol. Also, chill the cuvettes in ice before using them.
Are you sure that the parameters you are using for electroporation is correct? Pay attention to the gap size of your cuvette and modify electroporation parameters accordingly.
Check this info, might be helpful: https://www.btxonline.com/media/wysiwyg/protocol_db/Electroporation_Optimization_Guide.pdf
Hi Emilia Bottero some cause of arcing in addition to what Xi Jiang said, can also be a cracked cuvette, airbubbles, and water on the outside. If you are reusing cuvettes make sure there are no big cracks and if it arced, don't reuse. When pipetting avoid bubbles (pipetting a little less than the 100% volume into the cuvette helps and slightly tap until all liquid is well distributed and no bubbles remain). Dry the cuvette well outside before electrotrafo (if you put them in ice you can use a plastig ziplock bag, too, that helps not getting them so wet.) Good luck.
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