Apart from the fact that the transformation efficiency is high, it grows fast and it allows blue white screening of recombinant clones what are the other features or mutations for which it is widely used.
perhaps, it reduces the lenght of time of incubation on ice with the plasmid. it requires only 5 mins for transformation whereas dh5 alpha and others may require at least 30 mins.
MACH 1™ T1R chemically E. Coli competent cells also benefit from T1 phage resistance.
But, the most attractive feature is that they grow very fast. After transformation, colonies are clearly visible within eight hours of plating the transformation. And, from an overnight colony, miniprep can be performed after only FOUR hours of growth. They reach a useful OD (e.g., for mini-prep analysis) significantly faster (4 hr) than other strains (see attached figure). That means if you come into the lab at 8 AM, inoculate colonies into cultures, at 12 PM, you can do the minipreps, and later do the digestion, run gels in the same day.
But, that trade off is that MACH 1™ cost $385 (US) for 20 reactions (50 uL each), while regular DH5α™ competent cells cost only $82.50 (US) for 40 reactions at same company (Life Technology Inc.).
http://www.lifetechnologies.com/us/en/home/life-science/cloning/competent-cells-for-transformation/competent-cells-strains/mach1-competent-cells.html
It is not a problem of transformation speed (DH5 can well be transformed efficiently in only 5 minutes) but the faster growth and therefore less time needed before harvest for preps can be done.
The Mach1 cell is one of the fastest-growing chemically competent strains currently available. Mach1 colonies are clearly visible within eight hours of plating the transformation (ampicillin selection only), enabling you to plate and pick colonies in the same day. From an overnight colony, minipreps can be performed after only four hours of growth. Mach1 cells also benefit from T1 phage resistance.
Good luck!
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