Scarab Genomics launches White Glove IS Detection Kit

Scarab Genomics has now launched the White Glove IS Detection Kit to test for the presence of transposable Insertion Sequence (IS) elements in a DNA of interest. Numerous IS elements are naturally present in the genomes of E. coli strains commonly used for protein and plasmid production, but are not present in the Scarab Genomics Clean Genome^® strains. IS element transposition is known to be stimulated by the cell stress response and can lead to the “hopping” of IS elements into plasmid DNA and or into other regions of the bacterial chromosome. The transposition of IS elements into an expression vector can interfere with the expression of a foreign protein in E. coli. IS element transposition can also contaminate pDNA isolated for vaccine purposes. To alleviate these undesired transposition events, Scarab Genomics previously produced the Clean Genome^® E. coli strains. These strains are devoid of all known IS elements thereby creating the ideal hosts for the production of foreign proteins or plasmid DNA. The White Glove IS Detection Kit can be used to detect the presence of IS elements in the genomes of commonly used E. coli strains. The kit can also be used to determine which elements have transposed from these genomes into a plasmid of interest propagated in these strains.