Make Entry -- Become an Editor -- Most Popular: (10, 25, 50, 75, 100)

   Help

Electro-Competent Cells

In a competent cell, cell walls can be easily altered so that DNA can be passed through; these cells readily incorporate foreign DNA, making them useful in genetic experimentation. Electro-competent cells are those that can be made competent through the use of an electric charge.

Cells to be made electro-competent are generally the very young cells; electro-competent cells are more easily made from cells undergoing very rapid growth than from cells in other stages. The overall growth rate is not constant in a bacterial culture; when most cells are in the "log phase," an easily-predicted time of rapid cell division and colonial growth, it is most easy to make electro-competent cells.

Prepared cells are shocked with an electric field in the range of 100-200 volts. Through a process called electroporation, holes will appear in the cell walls, which will be naturally closed by membrane-repair mechanisms afterward. If the shocked cell is in a bath with plasmid DNA, the plasmids will enter the cell through the electroporated holes. By including an antibiotic-resistant gene in the plasmid, the scientist can easily kill off the non-infected cells, leaving him with a colony of the cells he wants.

Web Resources On Electro-Competent Cells

Preparation of Electrocompetent E. coli
Competent Cell Preparation

Book Resources On Electro-Competent Cells

Cell Cycle Control: Mechanisms and Protocols by Humphrey & Brooks
Basic Cell Culture Protocols by Helgason & Miller

Site Maps: Most Recent | Clusters | Browse
New: Graduate Student Job Opportunity