DNA Plasmids and Substrates

• pBR322 DNA is a commonly used plasmid cloning vector in E. coli (1).
• The molecule is a double-stranded circle 4,361* base pairs in length (2).
• pBR322 contains the genes for resistance to ampicillin and tetracycline, and can be amplified with chloramphenicol.
• The molecular weight is 2.83 x 10⁶ daltons.

*Sequencing data from Watson (confirmed at New England Biolabs, Inc.) has shown pBR322 to be 4,361 base pairs, not 4,363 base pairs as previously reported.

• pUC19 is a commonly used cloning vector that conveys Tet and Amp resistance.
• The molecule is a small double-stranded circle, 2686 base pairs in length, and has a high copy number.
• pUC19 carries a 54 base-pair multiple cloning site polylinker that contains unique sites for 13 different hexanucleotide-specific restriction endonucleases.
• NEB offers a selection of common cloning plasmids and DNAs for use as substrates.