DH5α Competent Cells

Product box and its contents: 21 tubes of One Shot Mach1 T1R Chemically Competent E. coli, 1 tube of pUC19 DNA, and one tube of SOC medium

DH5α competent E. coli is one of the most common laboratory strains. We offer several versatile strains for general cloning applications within a variety of transformation efficiencies and formats to suit your workflow and budget.

Why is DH5α good for cloning?

DH5α is a popular E. coli strain for routine cloning due to several key features:

Blue/white screening with lacZ∆M15
High insert stability due to recA1 mutation
High yield and quality of DNA due to endA mutation
High transformation efficiency (Figure 1)

Bar graph illustrates that Invitrogen DH5α T1R Competent Cells outperformed DH5α competent cells from competitors

Click image to enlarge

Figure 1. Comparing transformation efficiencies of DH5α competent E. coli with NEB 5-alpha 5α and Zymo 5a in similar product configurations. Transformation efficiency was measured by performing triplicate transformations, using 10 pg pUC19 DNA, according to manufacturer’s recommended protocol. Each transformation was plated in duplicate.

For information on genotypes, check out genotypes and genetic markers of E. coli competent cells

E. coli DH5α competent cell strains

DH5α competent cells for routine cloning

DH5α is one of the most common laboratory E. coli strains utilized for small plasmid propagation and is selected for its ability to achieve high transformation efficiency. Usually, this strain is transformed using the calcium chloride (CaCl₂) method; specially designed strain derivatives like DH5α-E can be transformed using electroporation.

	Subcloning Efficiency™ DH5α Competent Cells	Library Efficiency DH5α Competent Cells	MAX Efficiency DH5α Competent Cells

Best for	General, everyday use	Cloning difficult constructs Applications using limiting amounts of DNA	Increase insert stability Improve the quality of plasmid DNA prepared from minipreps
Type of transformation	Chemical	Chemical	Electroporation
Transformation efficiency	>1 x 10⁶ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁸ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁹ cfu/µg
Available formats	4 x 500 µL/tube	5 x 200 µL/tube	5 x 200 µL/tube

Check out other strains for routine cloning

E. coli DH5α-T1R competent cell strains

DH5α-T1^R cells have the benefit of the tonA (fhuA) genotype for T1, T5, and φ80 phage resistance, with the same genetic markers and growth properties as the original strain.

	MAX Efficiency DH5α-T1R Competent Cells	MultiShot DH5α T1R Competent Cells

Best for	Library construction Cloning small amount of DNA	High throughput applications
Type of transformation	Chemical	Chemical
Transformation efficiency	>1 × 10⁹ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁸ cfu/µg
Available formats	21 x 50 µL/tube 5 x 200 µL/tube	1 x 96 tube rack with 50 µL/tube 1 x 96 well plate with 20 µL/well

DH5α competent cells for specialized cloning applications

	MAX Efficiency DH5αF´IQ Competent Cells	ElectroMAX DH5α-E Competent Cells

Best for	M13 cloning Protein expression in non-BL21 strain	Generation of cDNA libraries Transformations with limited input DNA
Type of transformation	Chemical	Electroporation
Transformation efficiency	>3 x 10⁸ cfu/µg	>1 x 10¹⁰ cfu/µg
Available formats	5 x 200 µL/tube	5 x 100 µL/tube

Shop all Invitrogen DH5α competent cells

Routine cloning

DH5α competent cells for routine cloning

	Subcloning Efficiency™ DH5α Competent Cells	Library Efficiency DH5α Competent Cells	MAX Efficiency DH5α Competent Cells

Best for	General, everyday use	Cloning difficult constructs Applications using limiting amounts of DNA	Increase insert stability Improve the quality of plasmid DNA prepared from minipreps
Type of transformation	Chemical	Chemical	Electroporation
Transformation efficiency	>1 x 10⁶ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁸ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁹ cfu/µg
Available formats	4 x 500 µL/tube	5 x 200 µL/tube	5 x 200 µL/tube

Check out other strains for routine cloning

Phage resistance

E. coli DH5α-T1R competent cell strains

DH5α-T1^R cells have the benefit of the tonA (fhuA) genotype for T1, T5, and φ80 phage resistance, with the same genetic markers and growth properties as the original strain.

	MAX Efficiency DH5α-T1R Competent Cells	MultiShot DH5α T1R Competent Cells

Best for	Library construction Cloning small amount of DNA	High throughput applications
Type of transformation	Chemical	Chemical
Transformation efficiency	>1 × 10⁹ cfu/µg	>1 x 10⁸ cfu/µg
Available formats	21 x 50 µL/tube 5 x 200 µL/tube	1 x 96 tube rack with 50 µL/tube 1 x 96 well plate with 20 µL/well

Specialty applications

DH5α competent cells for specialized cloning applications

	MAX Efficiency DH5αF´IQ Competent Cells	ElectroMAX DH5α-E Competent Cells

Best for	M13 cloning Protein expression in non-BL21 strain	Generation of cDNA libraries Transformations with limited input DNA
Type of transformation	Chemical	Electroporation
Transformation efficiency	>3 x 10⁸ cfu/µg	>1 x 10¹⁰ cfu/µg
Available formats	5 x 200 µL/tube	5 x 100 µL/tube

Shop all Invitrogen DH5α competent cells

Competent cells: Featured products

In addition to competent cells, we offer a broad suite of products for the cloning workflow.

Magnified image of purple, rod-shaped bacteria

Microbial
media

Explore types of bacterial growth media to use for cloning, plasmid DNA preparation, and protein expression.

Browse media

Electroporation
cuvettes

Learn more about universal-fit electroporation cuvettes for use with competent cells.

View electroporation cuvettes

Photo of TOPO PCR cloning kit product box and content

TOPO PCR
cloning kits

Learn more about one-step PCR cloning that combines traditional restriction and ligation cloning.

View TOPO kits

Gibson Assembly
cloning kits

Gibson Assembly cloning kits provide highly efficient, seamless cloning, enabling the assembly of multiple DNA fragments of varying lengths into any vector.

Explore Gibson Assembly cloning

Resources

Have any questions on competent cells or transformation? Click on the resources listed below to access overviews, videos, genotype guides, and educational resources.