E. coli Protein Expression Strains
NEB offers several strains of competent E. coli for protein expression. Depending on your construct, there is a strain of E. coli that will optimally express your desired protein.
- BL21(DE3) Competent E. coli (NEB #C2527), are chemically competent E. coli cells suitable for transformation and routine protein expression.
- Lemo21(DE3) Competent E. coli (NEB #C2528) is a BL21(DE3) strain containing the Lemo System™, offering tunable expression of difficult clones.
- NiCo21(DE3) Competent E. coli (NEB #C2529) are chemically competent E. coli cells derived from BL21(DE3). NiCo21(DE3) has been engineered to minimize E. coli protein contamination of IMAC fractions: endogenous GlmS is mutated to eliminate binding to IMAC resins, and three other proteins (SlyD, ArnA and Can) are tagged to enable rapid removal by chitin affinity chromatography.
- NEBExpress Competent E. coli (High Efficiency) (NEB #C2523) are chemically competent E. coli cells suitable for high efficiency transformation and protein expression. They are the recommended host strain for the NEBExpress MBP Fusion and Purification System (NEB #E8201). NEBExpress E.coli does not restrict methylated DNA (McrA-, McrBC-, EcoBr-m-, Mrr-). NEBExpress Iq Competent E. coli (NEB #C3037) and BL21 Competent E. coli (NEB #C2530) strains may also be used with pMAL vectors or other vectors with a tac, trc, lac, or araBAD promoter.
- The SHuffle® suite of competent E. coli was designed to encourage disulfide bond formation in expressed proteins. The SHuffle suite includes SHuffle Express Competent E. coli (NEB #C3028) SHuffle T7 Competent E. coli (NEB #C3026), SHuffle T7 Express lysY Competent E. coli (NEB #C3030) and SHuffle T7 Express Competent E. coli (NEB #C3029).
- The T7 Express High Efficiency Group of Competent Cells includes three different strains, including T7 Express lysY/Iq Competent E. coli (High Efficiency) (NEB #C3013), T7 Express lysY Competent E. coli (High Efficiency) (NEB #C3010) and T7 Express Competent E. coli (High Efficiency) (NEB #C2566).
Choose Product:
T7 Expression
Non-T7 Expression
SHuffle Expression
Choose Type:
- 5 Minute Transformation (C2523)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C2527)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C2528)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C2529)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C2530)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C2566)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3010)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3013)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3026)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3028)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3029)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3030)
- 5 Minute Transformation Protocol (C3037)
- Expression Using SHuffle (C3026)
- Expression Using SHuffle (C3028)
- Expression Using SHuffle (C3029)
- Expression Using SHuffle (C3030)
- Expression Using NEB Express (C2523)
- Protocol for Expression Using NEB Express Iq (C3037)
- Protocol for Expression Using T7 Express (C2566)
- Protocol for Expression Using T7 Express lysY (C3010)
- Protocol for Expression Using T7 Express lysY/Iq (C3013)
- Protocol for Protein Expression Using BL21 (C2530)
- Protein Expression with T7 Express strains
- Protein Expression Using Lemo21(DE3) (C2528)
- Protein Expression Using BL21(DE3) (C2527)
- Protein Expression Using NiCo21(DE3) (C2529)
- IMPACT™ Vectors and Applications
- Protein Expression and Purification Selection Chart
Selection Tools
- Wagner, S., Klepsch, M., Schlegel, S., Appel, A., Draheim, R., Tarry, M., Hö, M., van Wijk, K.J., Slotboom, D.J., Persson, J.O. and de Gier, J. (2008) Tuning Escherichia coli for membrane protein overexpression Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A; 105 , 14371-14376 .
- Anton, B.P., Fomenkov, A., Raleigh, E.A. and Berkmen, M. (2016) Complete Genome Sequence of the Engineered Escherichia coli SHuffle Strains and Their Wild-Type Parents Genome Announc; Mar 31;4(2), PubMedID: 27034504, DOI: 10.1128/genomeA.00230-16.
- Leith, E.M., O'Dell, W.B., Ke, N., McClung, C., Berkmen, M., Bergonzo, C., Brinson, R.G., Kelman, Z (2019) Characterization of the internal translation initiation region in monoclonal antibodies expressed in Escherichia coli J Biol Chem; 294(48), 18046-18056.. PubMedID: 31604819, DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.011008
- Lobstein, J., Emrich, C.A., Jeans, C., Faulkner, M., Riggs, P. and Berkmen, M. (2012) SHuffle, a novel Escherichia coli protein expression strain capable of correctly folding disulfide bonded proteins in its cytoplasm Microb Cell Fact; 11, 56. PubMedID: 22569138
- Samuelson, J.C., Causey, T.B., and Berkmen, M. (2012) Disulfide-bonded protein expression in E. coli Genet Eng Biotechnol News; 32(3),
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