Relationship between plasmid size and shock wave-mediated bacterial transformation

Abstract

Bacterial transformation is a fundamental tool in molecular biology; nevertheless, there is still a lack of efficient methods for gene delivery. The use of shock waves has been proposed as an alternative. Recently, our group demonstrated that shock wave-induced transfer of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into bacteria can be increased by enhancing acoustic cavitation; however, so far, little information exists about the effects of shock waves on DNA. The objective of this study was to identify the size regimes of plasmids (DNA molecules that are separate from the chromosomal DNA), which promote shock wave-induced transformation. The transformation efficiency of shock waves and the integrity of DNA were studied for six different plasmid sizes, using the parameters that led to the best results in our previous study.