7
votes
1answer
90 views

How is the exogenous DNA protected from degradation during bacterial transformation?

During transformation, a bacterium can take up DNA from its environment. A small fraction of bacterial species are known to be naturally competent, meaning that they can engage in this sort of ...
5
votes
1answer
155 views

Sparking during electroporation of plasmid DNA into bacterial cells

During electroporation of bacterial cells (I work with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but I think this applies to E. coli as well), sometimes I get sparking. I've read this is due to salts present, ...