Effect of growth rate and nutrient limitation on the transformability of Escherichia coli with plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid.

The observed transformation frequency by plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid of Escherichia coli grown in continuous culture was found to depend on both the steady-state growth rate and the type of nutrient used to limit growth. With carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus limitation, the faster the growth rate, the higher the transformation frequency. The increase in transformation frequency associated with higher rates was shown to be due to more transformable cells in the population rather than an increased efficiency of deoxyribonucleic acid uptake. Growth rate had relatively little effect on the transformability of cells from sulfate- and Mg2+-limited chemostats, indicating that some factor other than the growth rate must influence the frequency of transformation. Regardless of the nutrient limitation or the growth rate, no transformants were obtained in the absence of CaCl2.