Bacterial Electrotransformation: An Interface Between Technology and Art

Abstract

Since its inception during the early 1980s, electrotransfection has likely become the most widely employed technique to transform bacteria that are not naturally competent. Electrotransformation has been applied to virtually all families of culturable bacteria and has contributed to and enhanced the development of molecular tools to achieve genetic tractability. Electrotransformation of non-pathogenic, laboratory Escherichia coli strains is the focus of this chapter’s discussion because, in all likelihood, they are the most widely electroporated bacteria; thereby facilitating comparisons and highlighting contrasts. A few recently reported improvements of and amendments to E. coli electrotransformation protocols are presented, electroporation parameters optimization discussed, and a few select, representative families of electrotransformed eubacteria examined. For the sake of focus, electroporation is addressed in the context of bacterial transformation exclusively not withstanding recent development of an assortment of applications. In spite of technical improvements, innovative applications, and utilization of the technique over a growing range of bacterial species, much remains to be learned and understood regarding the mechanisms involved in pore formation and macromolecule translocation mediated by electric pulse into prokaryotes, among other reasons addressed here, because of bacterial cell envelopes’ considerable structural diversity and complexity.