Co-transformation of E. coli?

[Patricia Foster]

Dear Netters,
    Posting the following for a friend

I wish to transform E. coli with a plasmid
that has no selectable marker.  Will competent
E. coli take up and maintain two compatible plasmids
at a sufficiently high frequency as to make it feasible
to simultaneously transform cells with two different
plasmids (one with no selectable marker, the other
with a selectable marker).  If the frequencies of
co-transformation were high enough (ca. 1% percent)
one could screen transformants displaying
the selected phenotype (e.g by colony hybridization)
for the presence of the non-selectable plasmid.
Responses please to:
eric at tomcat.onr.navy.mil.
Thanks.

Eric Eisenstadt
Biological Sciences              Voice: 703-696-4596
& Technology Program           Fax:   703-696-1212
Office of Naval Research
Code 341                       Email: eric at tomcat.onr.navy.mil
800 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22217-5660

--
Patricia L. Foster
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston, MA USA
pfoster at bu.edu