Transformation problems...

[CSC]

On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, khalil wrote:

> I am writing on behalf of an entire departement of microbiology which
> students are loosing all hopes. We are at least 7 students in 5 different
> laboratories of the university who are not able to have a single colonie
> after transformation.
> We would like to know if anyone ever encountered such a problem. Please
> avoid any joke about our ability to transform, we all have either master's
> or PhD. 

In biology ? Or astronomy ? (Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation :-)

> This week we decided to look at what we did in common in our
> experiments that would be the cause of our problems. The only thing that we
> found would be the water we use (millipore milli-Q). We all get our
> deionised water from the same source in the departement. Could it be the
> cause, a problem with the filters or anything ? while we are trying to
> find-out, any help would be greatly appreciated. Did anyone ever had
> problems of transformation due to water. Thank you in advance.

YES ! I have had tremendous problems with millipore water. When I changed
to 'clinical', distilled water (bought from a company) the problems
stopped. 

Kind regards, 

Clemens Suter-Crazzolara, PhD
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