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A rapid electrophoretic method for the measurement of plasmid copy number
Author(s) -
LEWINGTON J.,
DAY M. J.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1111/j.1472-765x.1986.tb01561.x
Subject(s) - plasmid , lysis , low copy number , microbiology and biotechnology , alkaline lysis , chromosome , biology , dna , electrophoresis , chromatography , genetics , chemistry , gene , dna vaccination
A rapid and inexpensive method for the measurement of copy number of small plasmids, ranging from 8.7 to 13 kb, in under 1 ml of liquid culture is described. The method involves whole cell lysis, electrophoretic separation of plasmid and chromosomal DNA followed by relative densitometric measurement of each, to give an estimation of the plasmid copies per chromosome. Results can be obtained in under 8 h and the method proved to be reproducible, fast and ideal for processing large numbers of samples from batch or continuous culture.