A Critical Introduction to the Technology of Bacterial Electrotransformation

Abstract

The basic principle of electrotransformation is to apply electric pulses to a mixture of bacteria and plasmids in an aqueous solution. In most protocols, only one pulse is needed. This is obtained by applying a selected voltage U (volts) on two electrodes, the interelectrode space being filled with the mixture. In all experiments dealing with gene transfer in bacteria, the two electrodes are flat and parallel with a width d (cm). As a consequence, a field E (V/cm) is present between the two electrodes with a strength: 1 % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaagCart1ev2aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWexLMBbXgBd9% gzLbvyNv2CaeHbafKCPfgBGuLBPn2BKvginnfaiuaacaWFfbGaa8xp% aiaa-vfacaWFVaGaa8hzaaaa!459C! $$E = U/d$$