Calcium chloride made E. coli competent for uptake of extraneous DNA through overproduction of OmpC protein.

In the standard method of transformation of Escherichia coli with extraneous DNA, cells are made competent for DNA uptake by incubating in ice-cold 100 mM CaCl(2). Analysis of the whole protein profile of CaCl(2)-treated E. coli cells by the techniques of one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, MALDI-MS and immunoprecipitation revealed overproduction of outer membrane proteins OmpC, OmpA and heat-shock protein GroEL. In parity, transformation efficiency of E. coli ompC mutant by plasmid pUC19 DNA was found to be about 40 % lower than that of the wild type strain. Moreover, in E. coli cells containing groEL-bearing plasmid, induction of GroEL caused simultaneous overproduction of OmpC. On the other hand, less OmpC was synthesized in E. coli groEL mutant compared to its wild type counterpart, by CaCl(2)-shock. From these results it can be suggested that in the process of CaCl(2)-mediated generation of competence, the heat-shock chaperone GroEL has specific role in DNA entry into the cell, possibly through the overproduced OmpC and OmpA porins.