How long can a bacterial culture be storage be stored at 4 degrees? - (Jun/30/2008 )
sometimes bacteria cultures eliminate their plasmids, if the antibiotics decline with the time. The plasmids are then useless or interfering and bacteria can get rid of them. For longer storage I freeze them in a glycerol-stock.
Agree. If you want to have a better yield of your plasmid, don't put the culture in the frige for more than 2~3 days. Of course, the period really depends on the strain, vector and the antibiotic
FOr plasmid work, u could however spin them down and freeze at -20 C for short term storage.
For just subcloning purpose.. i wonder if resuscitating them again in media supplemented with selective agent will regain back the desired population with plasmid.
I would suggest that there could be no single answer to the original question, as there are too many variables to consider. It depends very much on the bacterium itself, the storage medium used, the temperature of storage etc.
For example I was able to grow Listeria strains that had been on nutrient agar slopes (lids sealed with parafilm) for up to 2 years without too much difficulty.
Campylobacter on the other hand is very difficult to keep viable for more than a couple of weeks on slopes.
I would say though that this type of storage should be the exception rather than the rule - -70 storage is better for retaining certain properties of your strains and should be used where possible. for a mini you should be OK for a few weeks provided the bacteria arent too fastidious.