[File:Natural Competence Drawing.svg|thumb|Natural competence.
1-Bacterial cell DNA
2-Bacterial cell plasmids
3-Sex pili
4-Plasmid of foreign DNA from a dead cell
5-Bacterial cell restriction enzyme
6-Unwound foreign plasmid
7-DNA ligase
I: A plasmid of foreign DNA from a dead cell is intercepted by the sex pili of a naturally competent bacterial cell.
II: The foreign plasmid is transduced through the sex pili into the bacterial cell, where it is processed by bacterial cell restriction enzymes. The restriction enzymes break the foreign plasmid into a strand of nucleotides that can be added to the bacterial DNA.
III: DNA ligase integrates the foreign nucleotides into the bacterial cell DNA.
IV: Recombination is complete and the foreign DNA has integrated into the original bacterial cell’s DNA and will continue to be a part of it when the bacterial cell replicates next.]] In microbiology, genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology, competence is the ability of a cell to take up extracellular ("naked") DNA from its environment. Competence may be differentiated between natural competence, a genetically specified ability of bacteria which is thought to occur under natural conditions as well as in the laboratory, and induced or artificial competence, which arises when cells in laboratory cultures are treated to make them transiently permeable to DNA. This article primarily deals with natural competence in bacteria, although information about artificial competence is also provided.