Question

Electroporation procedure involves
A. Fast passage of food through sieve pores in phloem elements with the help of electric stimulation
B. Opening of stomatal pores during night by artificial light
C. Making transient pores in the cell membrane to introduce gene constructs
D. Purification of saline water with the help of a membrane system

Answer 1

Electroporation is a technique which can be explained by its breaking its name as electro and poration that means making pores with the help of electricity. This is a microbiological technique so the pores are made in cells.

Complete answer:
Electroporation is a technique in microbiology where an electric field is applied to a cell to increase the permeability of its cell membrane. This is done for the easy passage of substances like gene constructs, chemicals and drugs. This process is also known as electrotransfer. This technique is mostly used to transfer DNA fragments into bacteria, plant protoplasts and yeast to transform their genetic constitution. It is very efficient in foreign gene introduction into tissue cultures and animal cells. It has also found its use in gene therapy, tumour treatment and other such therapies.
In electroporation around 1000 volt of electricity is passed at a distance of 1- 2 millimetres of suspended cells in an electroporation cuvette. The suspension contains bacterial cells or the cells that have to take up the gene along with plasmid which are tiny DNA fragments or drugs that have to be taken up by the cells. After electroporation is done the cells are left undisturbed so that they can divide and show the presence of newly inserted DNA in their genetic material.
So the answer for this question is Option C – Electroporation procedure involves making transient pores in the cell membrane to introduce gene constructs.
Option A is Fast passage of food through sieve pores in phloem elements with the help of electric stimulation – This a wrong statement as the transfer of food in phloem occurs through based upon the pressure gradient.
Option B is Opening of stomatal pores during night by artificial light – this happens by blue light not by electroporation. This happens due to the anions released from the guard cells.
Option D is Purification of saline water with the help of a membrane system – this happens by reverse osmosis and not by electroporation. This is the process used in the water purification systems installed in most of the households.

Hence, the correct answer is option (C).

Additional information:
-The transfer of foreign genes with electroporation in prokaryotic cells is known as transfection.
Other variations of electroporation on miniature scale involve micro electroporation and nanotransfection in which nanochannels are used for the purpose of electroporation.
-Electroporation is also used in cell fusion in which two cells are made to fuse and become one under high electric current. This particular process of cell fusion is used to study different diseases like diabetes.
-Electroporation can help to regenerate axons which are a part of neurons.
Compared to other chemical methods that are to transform cells electroporation is considered much efficient due to the high transformation efficiency that it produces.

Note: Most known and first use of electroporation was in the cell fusion technique that was used in the generation of monoclonal antibodies by hybridoma technology under which hybrid cell lines are produced by the fusion of antibody producing B lymphocytes and myeloma cells which are cancer causing B cells.