Optimized universal protocol for electroporation of both coagulase-positive and -negative Staphylococci

Electroporation is a common technique necessary for genomic manipulation of Staphylococci. However, because this technique has too low efficiency to be applied to some Staphylococcal species and strains, especially to coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) isolates, basic researches on these clinically important Staphylococci are limited. Here we report on the optimization of electroporation parameters and conditions as well as on the generation of a universal protocol that can be efficiently applicable to both CNS and Coagulase-positive Staphylococci (CPS). This protocol could generate transformants of clinical Staphylococcus epidermidis isolate, with an efficiency of up to 1400 CFU/μg of plasmid DNA. Transformants of 12 other clinically important Staphylococcal species, including CNS and CPS, were also generated with this protocol. To our knowledge, this is the first report on successful electroporation in nine these Staphylococcal species.