High-efficiency transfer of DNA into eukaryotic cells by protoplast fusion.

Protoplast fusion is a highly efficient method for effecting gene transfer to cells in culture resulting in stable transformation at high frequency. A number of cell lines have been used successfully as recipients. There is no need to isolate and purify the DNA, which not only saves time and effort but eliminates steps that cause nicking or breaking of large cloned inserts. The high-frequency transformation achievable by protoplast fusion should make this procedure useful for studies on gene expression and for screening cloned genomic libraries for genes that can be expressed in recipient cells.