Electroporation permits the uptake of DNA by mammalian cells and plant protoplasts because it induces transient permeability of the cell membrane. We investigated the utility of high-voltage electroporation as a method for genetic transformation of intact bacterial cells by using the enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni as a model system. This report demonstrates that the application of high-v...

The transformation of organic substrates by heterotrophic bacteria in aquatic environments constitutes one of the key processes in global material cycles. The development of procedures that would enable us to track the wide range of organic compounds transformed by aquatic bacteria would greatly improve our understanding of material cycles. In this study, we examined the applicability of nuclea...

To improve Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tobacco, factors influencing gene delivery, including genotype of the plant, bacterial strain, and Agrobacterium transformation procedure, were tested via direct somatic embryogenesis. Leaf tissue of three different tobacco genotypes (Nicotiana tabacum L. cvs. Samsun, and Xanthi, and N. benthamiana) we...

To understand how soil microbial communities and arsenic (As) functional genes respond to soil arsenic (As) contamination, five soils contaminated with As at different levels were collected from diverse geographic locations, incubated for 54 days under flooded conditions, and examined by both MiSeq sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons and functional gene microarray (GeoChip 4.0). The results s...

The process of bacterial transformation offers a unique met,hod of studying the relationship of the gene to its participation in the production of specific enzymes. Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty (l), in their studies on transformation in Diplococcus pneumoniae, showed that the transfer of heritable characters from a donor strain to a closely related strain was mediated by highly polymerized deoxy...

We developed one-step sequence- and ligation-independent cloning (SLIC) as a simple, cost-effective, time-saving, and versatile cloning method. Highly efficient and directional cloning can be achieved by direct bacterial transformation 2.5 min after mixing any linearized vector, an insert(s) prepared by PCR, and T4 DNA polymerase in a tube at room temperature.

After a new transformation procedure, 10% of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells were found to contain transforming DNA sequences. We used direct transfer of plasmid molecules by fusing bacterial minicell protoplasts to yeast protoplasts. Since the procedure significantly reduces the toxic effect of procaryotic protoplasm on the eucaryotic organism, it might be generally applicable in other systems ...