Alternative competent cells for QuikChange kit - (Apr/06/2015 )

I'm doing site directed mutagenesis using a protocol akin to QuikChange II kit. I want to use E.coli BL21(DE3) for my competent cells. Does anyone know if these cells will repair nicks?

Thanks

M

Check this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198389/

Probably it does, but you likely don't want to do it in any case. The competence of BL21 strains is about 2 orders of magnitude less than cloning strains such as DH10. You should clone into a cloning strain, isolate plasmid, and then transform into BL21 strains. Sounds like extra work, but it will save you time in the long run.