1μl of the cell lysate was mixed with 200 μl of 5X Bradford reagent and 800 μl of water. O.D was measured at 595 nm. Standard curve of BSA was plotted using various dilutions of BSA protein by Bradford method. Protein estimation of the cell lysate samples was performed using the standard curve equation y=0.0695x + 0.0329 μg/μl

Protein estimation by Bradford method

Overnight cell culture raised in LB medium was subcultured 1:100 in LB with 20 mM MgCl2. When the A600 reached 0.4-0.6, the culture was centrifuged at 2800g for 5 min at 4 ̊C. To the cell pellet 0.4 volumes of ice-cold TBF-I buffer was added and incubated on ice for 15 min. The cell suspension was centrifuged at 2800g for 5 min at 4 ̊C and the cells recovered were dissolved in 0.04 volume of ice-cold TBF-II buffer and kept on ice for 45 min. 100 μl aliquots of these competent cells were used for transformation using the normal transformation protocol

TBF method for preparation of high competency cells

Quiagen/HiPura following the manufacturer's protocols

The rapid alkaline lysis method of plasmid isolation, as described by Sambrook and Russel (2001), was followed with minor modifications. Bacterial pellet from 3 ml of stationary-phase culture was resuspended in 200 μl of ice-cold solution I (50 mM glucose, 25 mM Tris-Cl pH 8.0, 10 mM EDTA pH 8.0 containing 1 mg/ml lysozyme) by vortexing. After 5 min incubation at room temperature, 400 μl of freshly prepared solution II (0.2 N NaOH, 1% SDS) was added and the contents were mixed, by gently inverting the tube several times. This was followed by the addition of 300 μl of ice-cold solution III (5 M potassium acetate, pH 4.8) and gentle mixing. The tube was incubated on ice for 5 min and centrifuged at 20,0000g for 15 min at 4°C. The clear supernatant was removed into a fresh tube and, if required, was extracted with an equal volume of phenol:chloroform mixture. The supernatant was precipitated with either two volumes of cold 95% ethanol or 0.6 volumes of isopropanol at room temperature for 30 min. The nucleic acids were pelleted by centrifugation, washed with 70% ethanol, vacuum dried, and dissolved in appropriate volume of TE buffer. If required, the sample was treated for 30 min with DNase free RNase at a final concentration of 20 μg/ml. The plasmid DNA was checked on a 0.8% agarose gel and stored at −20°. The plasmid DNA thus isolated was suitable for procedures such as restriction digestion, ligation, and preparation of radiolabeled probes. Plasmid isolation was also done with any of the commercially available kits from

Isolation of plasmid DNA

For TEM, C. glabrata cells were digested with zymolyase 20T for 3 h at 30◦C, centrifuged at 1,000 g and washed with YPD medium. Cell fixation was performed as described for SEM and dehydrated samples were embedded in araldite 6005 resin. After complete polymerization at 80 ̊C for 72 h, ultra-thin (50-70 nm) sections were preparedwith a glass knife on Leica Ultra cut (UCT-GA-D/E-1/00)microtomeand mounted on copper grids. Aqueous uranyl acetate-stained and Reynolds lead citrate-counterstained samples were viewed under Hitachi H-7500 transmission electron microscope

Transmission electron microscopy