LBA4404 (pSuperAgro™ v4) Agrobacterium Electrocompetent Cells

GoldBio’s LBA4404 ElectroCompetent Agrobacterium cells allow you to obtain high transformation efficiency in applications such as gDNA or cDNA library construction. Our LBA4404 strain harbor a rifampicin resistance (rif) gene. Furthermore, LBA4404 has an octoprine-type Ti plasmid pAL4404 without self-transport function, containing the vir genes. Our LBA4404 strain can be used in genetic transformation of tomato, tobacco and other plants.

pSuperAgro™ v4 was designed to include AcdS and GabT activity, driven by a single lac promotor, which both suppresses ethylene evolution and degrades gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) during co-cultivation. The combined suppression of ethylene and reduction of GABA significantly increases T-DNA transfer and increases transient and stable transformation frequencies in both tomato and grass plants.

These products are sold under license by GoldBio and require a signed agreement before fulfilment. The purchase of this product includes a 1-year subscription to use pSuperAgro™ in your research. See license details below in the technical documentation.

Kit Components

• Competent Cells
• 1 x 12 mL Recovery Media
• 1 x 10 µL Control Plasmid (pCAMBIA1391z Control, 500 pg/µL)

Product Specifications
Competent cell type: ElectroCompetent
Species: A. tumefaciens
Strain: LBA4404 (pSuperAgro™ v4)
Transformation efficiency: ≥1 x 10⁷ cfu/µg pCAMBIA1391z DNA
Blue/white screening: No

Storage/Handling: This product may be shipped on dry ice. LBA4404 Agrobacterium Electrocompetent cells should be stored at -80°C, pCAMBIA1391z Control DNA should be stored at -20°C and recovery medium should be stored at 4°C immediately upon arrival. When stored under the recommended conditions and handled correctly, these products should be stable for at least 1 year from the date of receipt.

Reagents Needed for One Reaction

• LBA4404 (pSuperAgro™ v4) ElectroCompetent Agrobacterium: 25 µL
• DNA (pCAMBIA1391z Control, 500 pg/µL): 1 µL
• Recovery medium: 1 mL

Quality Control
Transformation efficiency is tested by using the pCAMBIA1391z control DNA supplied with the kit and using the protocol given below. Transformation efficiency should be ≥1 x 10 ⁷ CFU/µg pCAMBIA1391z DNA. Untransformed cells are tested for appropriate antibiotic sensitivity.

General Guidelines

• Handle competent cells gently as they are highly sensitive to changes in temperature or mechanical lysis caused by pipetting.
• Thaw competent cells on ice and transform cells immediately following thawing. After adding DNA, mix by tapping the tube gently. Do not mix cells by pipetting or vortexing.

Note: A high-voltage electroporation apparatus capable of generating field strengths of 16 kV/cm is required.

Calculation of Transformation Efficiency
Transformation Efficiency (TE) is defined as the number of colony forming units (cfu) produced by transforming 1 µg of plasmid into a given volume of competent cells.

• TE = Colonies/µg/Dilution
  • Colonies = the number of colonies counted
  • µg = amount of DNA transformed in µg
  • Dilution = total dilution of the DNA before plating

Example: Transform 1 µl of (10 pg/µl) control plasmid into 25 µl of cells, add 975 µl of Recovery Medium. Dilute 10 µl of this in 990 µl of Recovery Medium and plate 50 µl. Count the colonies on the plate the next day. If you count 250 colonies, the TE is calculated as follows:

Colonies = 250
µg of DNA = 0.00001
Dilution = 10/1000 x 50/1000 = 0.0005
TE = 250/0.00001/0.0005 = 5.0 × 10¹⁰