Details for amaxa FAQ article #335

«Can nicked DNA lead to reduced transfection efficiency?»

Yes. You should verify the integrity of your DNA on an agarose gel to see if it is degraded. Make sure that you check undigested as well as plasmid DNA digested with a suitable restriction enzyme. The content of “nicked” DNA (on an agarose gel visible as retarded band in the undigested sample) in your DNA preparation should be below 20%. Higher contents of nicked DNA result in significant decrease of transfection efficiency. Up to three fold lower transfection efficiencies have been observed.
Please click on the file "Nicked DNA" for more information.