Assertion : Bacterial cells are made competent by treating them with specific concentration of a divalent cation.
Reason : Treatment of bacterial cell with a divalent cation increases the efficiency with which DNA enters the bacterium through pores in its cell wall.
Answer (a) Both assertion and reason are true and reason is the correct explanation of assertion.
(a) : The bacterial cell is made competent by treating it with specific concentration of a divalent cation such as calcium to increase the efficiency with which DNA can enter the bacteria through pores of cell wall because DNA is a hydrophilic molecule and it cannot pass through cell membrane so making bacterial cell competent ease the process to take up DNA.
