Dictyostelium discoideum transformation by oscillating electric field electroporation

Abstract

Dictyostelium discoideum has been used as a genetically tractable model organism to study many biological phenomena. High-efficiency transformation is a prerequisite for successful genetic screens such as mutant complementation, identification of suppressor genes, or insertional mutagenesis. Although exponential decay electroporation is the standard transformation technique for D. discoideum, its efficiency is relatively low and its reproducibility is weak. Here we optimized the oscillating electroporation technique for D. discoideum transformation and compared it to the exponential decay electroporation. A 20-fold increase in the efficiency was reproducibly achieved. This alternative electroporation technique should facilitate future genetic approaches in D. discoideum.