Arabinose

Purpose

• In biology, Arabinose is often used to induce the P_BAD promoter described here.
• Note that P_BAD is induced by L-arabinose

Procurement

• You can buy Arabinose for example at Sigma.

Use

• MW = 150.14
• Concentrations in the range 0.001% - 1% are typically used to produce a range of transcription rates from the P_BAD promoter.
• Note that Arabinose is toxic to ara mutant strains that have araD only (Englesberg et al., 1962). This is for example the case in MC4100. See E. coli genotypes for other strains.

10% w/w Arabinose Stock Solution:

• Add 1g of Arabinose to 9ml of milliQ water in a small falcon tube.
• Filter sterilize with a 0.22μm filter.
• Can be stored at room temperature.

Safety

• Arabinose is just a sugar and harmless.

References

• A few general details about arabinose can be found on the wikipedia page.

• [1] Guzman LM, Belin D, Carson MJ, Beckwith J. Tight regulation, modulation, and high-level expression by vectors containing the arabinose PBAD promoter. J Bacteriol. 1995 Jul;177(14):4121-30