Plasmid Prep FAQs
Service Options
Completing the Order Form
# of Aliquots: The table below shows how we aliquot your sample volumes into tubes. If you would like your sample aliquoted in any other way, by volume or yield, that can be done for you at an additional charge. Examples for custom aliquot requests are also listed.
Run Scale | Sample Volumes |
Mini | 60μl mini tube or 96-well plate depending on order size |
Midi | 200μl in 2ml tube |
Maxi | 500μl in 2ml |
Mega | 1ml in 2ml tube |
Giga | (1ml in 2ml tube) x2 |
Normalizations | 1.7ml per tube 2ml (leaving room for expansion if freezing) or mini tubes (<200ul) |
Example 1: 50μl in one tube, the rest in a second tube.
Example 2: Split the order into 5 tubes.
Example 3: 50μg per tube.
Custom Tubes: If you would like your samples shipped back to you in specific tubes from your stock, that can be done for you at an additional charge. Simply include a stock of your tubes with your samples.
The table below provides guidance on selecting the appropriate cell line based on factors such as expression system, target protein, and downstream applications.
Strain | Best for |
DH5alpha | Regular cloning and storage, uptake of large plasmids |
Top10 | Regular cloning and storage |
Stable | Lentiviral and retroviral plasmids, plasmids prone to rearrangement |
AAV | Proprietary cell strain used for our AAV-ITR plasmid production services, designed to maximize ITR stability |
Sample Submission
- Purified DNA: At least 5 µL of DNA at 200 ng/µL (minimum 100 ng). Additional charge applies.
- Agar plate: Fresh (<3 days old) plate with single, well isolated colonies. Customer may indicate the colony (or colonies) to use, if desired.
- Glycerol stock or media sample: At least 200 µL. We can streak colonies (additional charges apply) for isolation prior to starting the liquid culture upon request.
- Cell pellet: Ship frozen on dry ice (direct to us via overnight carrier), with an indication of the culture volume, media used, OD600 at harvest, and cell pellet mass.
- DNA on filter paper: This format is discouraged – please send as purified, wet DNA in a sealed tube via overnight shipping (or our courier, if available). Additional charge applies.
- Other samples: Please contact our Technical Support team to discuss custom requirements.
Fresher is better; < 3days old with well isolated colonies. Older plates can be freshly streaked for isolation upon request. Please note that this will add to the order timeline.
Please use caution in shipping agar plates during the cold winter months. The agar media may freeze in transit, rendering the plate unusable. Glycerol stocks are recommended as a substitute format during this season.
Larger plasmids (>10 kb) and plasmids containing toxic or unstable sequences (such as long terminal repeats (LTR) found in viral expression vectors) are likely to produce better results when paired with cell lines engineered to maintain these difficult sequences.
We advise against using standard cloning strains for these plasmids, due to increased risk of lower yield and plasmid instability. We also suggest the selection of additional QC testing to verify unstable or toxic plasmids.
Turnaround Time and Troubleshooting
- Log into your account and view My Orders. From this main menu you can also see Order Status next to each individual tracking number.
- If additional help is needed, please contact our Project Management team at GS@azenta.com or 908.222.0711 ext. 3 with any questions or to discuss your project.
Our internal quality monitoring will trigger the automatic repeat of a plasmid DNA preparation when the yield is below a critical threshold, depending on the anticipated copy number for the plasmid. Yield variance above this threshold could be due to a variety of factors and may be intrinsic to the sample provided.
Plasmid DNA preparation orders are processed by run. For low copy or other low yield plasmids, we recommend ordering a larger preparation scale or multiple preps, depending on the amount of final material required.
To discuss troubleshooting or custom process modifications, please contact our Project Management team at GS@azenta.com or 908.222.0711 ext. 3 with any questions or to discuss your project.