Scientists commonly use electricity to increase the permeability of bacterial
cell membranes, making it easier to insert DNA. Now Sandrine Demanèche’s
team at the University of Lyon has provided the first evidence that nature may
have been wise to this trick all along.
The researchers seeded soil samples with the E. coli bacterium, as
well as fragments of DNA containing genes for antibiotic resistance. They zapped
the soil with a simulated lightning strike, and found that many of the bacteria
had acquired the resistance genes.
Bacteria are already known to take up and use foreign DNA released into the…
