The term transformation is used when bacteria uptakes naked DNA from their environment through phagocytosis, and this DNA can be either linear or circular, like a plasmid, and is able to either be incorporated into the genome of the bacteria or exist within the cell with degradation. The purpose of using transformation as a laboratory technique is to introduce foreign DNA for many different uses like introducing a specific gene into the bacterial genome that produce a specific protein, medicine, or it can be used to house plasmids in bacteria without the fear of loss during replication. Frederick Griffith discovered transformation in 1928 when he was studying the ability of the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae “gain back the its virulence by being incubated with heat killed bacteria, this Griffith called transformation. Transformation is very important in molecular biology because of its diverse use. Bacteria that can use transformation are said to be “competent”. Also, competency …show more content…
This procedure creates large pores to form in the cell membrane, making the bacterial cell competent for performing a transformation. These competent bacteria cells are then placed in a microfuge tube with the DNA of interest, for our purpose a plasmid, and placed on ice for twenty to thirty minutes. The plasmid is normally designed with the gene of interest, a origin of replication, and antibiotic resistance which allows the bacteria that uptake the plasmid to be identified. Then the tubes are placed in a 47°C water bath for thirty to sixty seconds, this is done to cause the bacteria to uptake the plasmid. The microfuge tube is then placed on ice for two minutes to cool the bacteria to prevent denaturation of