Using carbenicillin antibiotics in your research? Get to know these top frequently asked questions!
1. What is Carbenicillin?
Carbenicillin, also known as carboxybenzylpenicillin, is a member of the penicillin β-lactam antibiotics. Unlike most β-lactams, carbenicillin disodium is limited to primarily gram-negative bacteria including
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and common enteric species. It can be used in selection protocols and is often preferred over ampicillin due to its increased stability. This allows for less contamination of unwanted bacterial colonies.
2. What is carbenicillin used for?
Carbenicillin disodium salt is a penicillin-derived, β-lactam antibiotic that inhibits the synthesis of peptidoglycan. Carbenicillin has been used to regulate bacterial growth in plants, yielding low regeneration frequencies. It can be used in genetic transformation applications to select for AmpR transformed cells. Carbenicillin's longstanding application as a gene selection antibiotic in plant biology, has a powerful new role in Genome editing utilizing the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
3. What is carbenicillin's molecular weight?
Carbenicillin's molecular weight is 422.4 g/mol.
4. What is the appearance of carbenicillin?
Carbenicillin looks white to light yellow solid.
5. How do you store and handle carbenicillin?
Store at 2 - 8°C in a tightly sealed vial.
6. Can I prepare carbenicillin with agar?
Yes. To prepare LB agar plates with 50 µg/mL carbenicillin: combine 32 g of LB agar with 1 L of H
2O. Stir and autoclave for 15 min at 121°C. When cooled to 45°C-50°C, add 1 mL of carbenicillin stock solution (50 mg/mL). Pour into Petri dishes and allow to solidify. Store at 2 - 8°C.
7. What else is Carbenicillin used in?
It is also used in keeping subculture medium sterile.
