Sterilize E-poration cuvettes ?

[Shin Enomoto]

Stefan Baeckstroem (seab at nucleus) wrote:
:  Hello Electroporating people.

: How do you sterilize the single-use cuvettes from Bio-rad ?
: I don't want to throw the cuvettes after one Zapp and I
: wonder if you have some great method for this. 
: I guess that you first rinse them with water or something
: directly after the Zapp and then you use ethanol to sterilize with, 
: and then letting them dry, but don't you get a layer of dead cells 
: after a short while on the aluminium ?

I've used this protocol on one cuvette I had for at least 3 years 
(hundreds of transformations E. coli and budding yeast) without any problem.

I checked for cross-contamination by using a Kan resistant E. coli 
followed immediately by washing and then transforming a Kan sensitive E. 
coli and found in most cases (5/5 that I tested) did not give me any Kan 
resistant bacteria.  However, for yeast 70% Ethanol rinse did not kill 
all the cells for immediate use.  If you left the cleaned and ethanol 
washed cuvettes for at least a overnight drying in your desk drawer, no 
contamination by the yeast from the previous zap.