iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11472916
Laboratory-scale evidence for lightning-mediated gene transfer in soil - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2001 Aug;67(8):3440-4.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.67.8.3440-3444.2001.

Laboratory-scale evidence for lightning-mediated gene transfer in soil

S Demanèche  1 , F Bertolla, F Buret, R Nalin, A Sailland, P Auriol, T M Vogel, P Simonet
Affiliations

Laboratory-scale evidence for lightning-mediated gene transfer in soil

S Demanèche et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2001 Aug.

Abstract

Electrical fields and current can permeabilize bacterial membranes, allowing for the penetration of naked DNA. Given that the environment is subjected to regular thunderstorms and lightning discharges that induce enormous electrical perturbations, the possibility of natural electrotransformation of bacteria was investigated. We demonstrated with soil microcosm experiments that the transformation of added bacteria could be increased locally via lightning-mediated current injection. The incorporation of three genes coding for antibiotic resistance (plasmid pBR328) into the Escherichia coli strain DH10B recipient previously added to soil was observed only after the soil had been subjected to laboratory-scale lightning. Laboratory-scale lightning had an electrical field gradient (700 versus 600 kV m(-1)) and current density (2.5 versus 12.6 kA m(-2)) similar to those of full-scale lightning. Controls handled identically except for not being subjected to lightning produced no detectable antibiotic-resistant clones. In addition, simulated storm cloud electrical fields (in the absence of current) did not produce detectable clones (transformation detection limit, 10(-9)). Natural electrotransformation might be a mechanism involved in bacterial evolution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baur B, Hanselmann K, Schlimme W, Jenni B. Genetic transformation in freshwater: Escherichia coli is able to develop natural competence. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1996;62:3673–3678. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ben Rhouma A, Auriol P. Modelling of the whole electric field changes during a close lightning discharge. J Phys D. 1997;30:598–602.
    1. Bertolla F, Frostegard A, Brito B, Nesme X, Simonet P. During infection of its host, the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum naturally develops a state of competence and exchanges genetic material. Mol Plant-Microbe Interact. 1999;12:467–472.
    1. Demanèche S, Jocteur-Monrozier L, Quiquampoix H, Simonet P. Evaluation of biological and physical protection against nuclease degradation of clay-bound plasmid DNA. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2001;67:293–299. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Doolittle W F. Phylogenetic classification and the universal tree. Science. 1999;284:2124–2129. - PubMed

Publication types