The Process of Bacterial Transformation

• First discovered by Oswald Avery’s now classic experiments
• Bacteria take in plasmid DNA from their surroundings
• Transformed bacteria can survive presence of antibiotics
• Boyer and Cohen found that could insert eukaryotic and prokaryotic genes in other organisms

Process Steps:

1. Bacteria has many pores during rapid growth
2. Positively charged ions create neutral situation around bacteria membrane
3. Heat shock stabilizes membrane charge
4. Heat shock sets up current that pulls DNA plasmid into bacteria
5. Plasmid integrates/Directs bacteria function