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why cant dna being hydrophillic in nature, pass through cell membrane?

Your friend Neha is correct!

  • DNA, being a hydrophilic and  a highly charged molecule, would never passively diffuse across the hydrophobic bilayer cell membrane.
  • Recombinant DNA can then be forced into such cells by incubating the cells with recombinant DNA on ice, followed by placing them briefly at 420C (heat shock), and then putting them back on ice. This enables the bacteria to take up the recombinant DNA.

 

@ Neha: Good Answer! Keep Posting!!

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cell membrane is "lipid bilayer". Bi-layer. The polar tails aren't facing into the cell, exactly. The ones on the outside of the cell face in, and the ones on the inside of the cell face out....

the DNA inside the cell bumps up against the lipid part of the membrane molecules, not the hydrophilic part...

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