What does bacterial transformation involve?
1 Answer
Transformation is the process in which the genetic make up of a cell is changed by the introduction of DNA from the surrounding environment.
Explanation:
Bacteria are versatile organism that have the unique ability to take in foreign DNA and replicate it. The bacterial genome is contained on a single circular chromosomes and floats freely in the cytoplasm.
Bacteria often contain plasmids ( smaller circular DNA containing fewer genes ).
The piece of DNA or gene of interest is cut from its original DNA source using a restriction enzyme and then pasted into the plasmid by ligation.
After ligation the next step is to transfer the DNA into bacteria by transformation.
Transformation occurs naturally in some species of bacteria, but it can also be effected by artificial means in other cells.
