Electroporation

 

The image to the left is an artistic representation of a cell of BT corn that is being electroporated. The white ring around the cell is supposed to represent an electric charge being delivered to the cell. The black entities that are surrounding the cell are pieces of DNA that are attempting to enter the cell through pores in the cell plasma membrane that are a result of the electric charge.

* Picture permission pending from the University of Toronto*

* This Webpage was created to outline one method used to genetically modify organisms. This page is part of a larger project for the Genetically Modified Organisms seminar at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. *

 

How Does Electroporation Work?

Electroporation is a process that is use to introduce foreign DNA into a host cell. Electric shocks are used as a mechanism for introducing new DNA into a host cell by creating new pores in the plasma membrane of the host cell. The new DNA enters the host cell through the new pores and is incorporated into the genome of the new cell. The exact process that occurs during electroporation is not completely understood, but northern blot tests prove time and again that electroporation does work. A study published by Growrishankar, Lee and Weaver from the University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology* speculates that the change in voltage across the plasma membrane that occurs during electroporation causes the lipid molecules in the lipid bilayer to rearrange and make the plasma membrane much more permeable to foreign DNA. Electroporation is an integral tool used in the BioTech industry. Agriculture has made great advances and benefited, depending who you talk to, from the use of electroporation. Disease resistant strains of staple crops like corn, wheat and soy have been created by introducing DNA that codes for resistance genes that defined crops against diseases that normally decimate entire fields of produce.

 

References & Links

(*) Center for Computational Science and Technology. Character of Cell Membrane Electroporation. 20 Jan. 2000 http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov./ccst/research/reports_pre1998/comp_bio/electroporation/

Melcher, Ulrich. Homepage. 1997. 5 Sept. 2001.<http://opbs.okstate.edu/~melcher/MG/MGW4/MG431.html>

 

 

 

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© Copyright 2002 Department of Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035