Rearranging Plasmids

[Ed Rybicki]

> From:          CARRINGTON at bio.tamu.edu ("Carrington")
> Subject:       Re: Rearranging Plasmids

> The type of rearrangment problem described with Ad-2 DNA-containing 
> plasmids is also seen when we grow plasmids that contain full-length cDNA 
...
> Our solution...we do not grow cultures with volumes larger than 5 ml.  
> Problem solved.  When we need large-scale plasmid preps, we grow 40 or 80 

Hugely useful comment.  Thank you.
 
> One final comment for those with the patience to read this far.  It is 
> nice to see postings that discuss technical problems, research methods, 
> virological research issues, recent unexpected findings, etc., at this 
> site.  These are the contributions that most benefit the scientific 
> community.  Perhaps we could see more of a focus on this type of 
> discussion rather than time-consuming re-hashing of the meaning of life 
> and whether or not viruses are alive. 

Really, Jim?  Perhaps others in the scientific community - and I 
modestly include myself - actually get some benefit out of 
discussions on the meaning of life and whether or not viruses are 
alive?  It is something I get asked / have to teach every year - 
sometimes twice - and as there are not very many virologists round 
here, it is valuable (to me) to be able to use the medium of the Net 
to discuss the topic, to see whether others have the same problems / 
answers.  Some of what has been said in this discussion will find its 
way into my teaching this year.  Most I have discarded - Sturgeon's 
Law in operation, here as everywhere.

And if you want to discuss technical problems, 
bionet.methods-reagents is always a good haven.  Perhaps we can see a 
focus in this group on what interests virologists.  Including whether 
or not growing things in small flasks fools the recombinase demon, and 
whether or not viruses can be said to be alive.  And whether or not 
potyviruses are interesting...  B-)

 ______________________________________________________
 |     Ed Rybicki, PhD      |  ed at molbiol.uct.ac.za   |
 |    Dept Microbiology     | University of Cape Town |
 | Private Bag, Rondebosch  |   7700, South Africa    |
 |   fax: x27-21-650 4023   | phone: x27-21-650-3265  |
 ------WWW URL: http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology------
   
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