[A simple and visible assay for cre recombinase activity in Escherichia coli by using two incompatible plasmids]

The Cre/loxP system derived from bacteriophage P1 is widely used to carry out complex manipulations of DNA molecules both in vitro and in vivo. In order to further characterize and modify the Cre/loxP system, a convenient method for assaying the recombination efficiency is needed. A simple and visible assay is described, in which two incompatible plasmids, separately carrying the cre gene and loxP-flanked gfp gene, were co-transferred into E. coli. The cre gene was inserted into a kanamycin-resistant bacterial expression vector, designated pET30a-Cre. The gfp gene, flanked by directly repeated loxP sites, was cloned into an ampicillin-resistant expression vector to generate pET23b-loxGFP. E. coli BL21 (DE3) was cotransformed with pET30a-Cre and pET23b-loxGFP, and cultured in the presence of both ampicillin and kanamycin. Under UV illumination, the Cre-mediated recombination events can be easily detected. The fidelity of recombination was verified by SDS-PAGE analysis and restriction analysis followed by DNA sequencing. Thus, this cotransformation method provides a straightforward assay that can be used to modify the Cre/loxP system.