Glasmid Pglo

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E. coli or Escherichia coli is a prokaryotic cell found the in lower digestive track of mammals and other warm blooded animals. E. coli is an easy bacteria to work with as it doubles quickly and is relatively easy to grow; millions of cells can be grown in several hours (Biotechnology Learning Hub 2014). E. coli is an ideal bacterium in the lab because it does not require its temperature to be too hot, too cold, or too precise (Biotechnology Learning Hub 2014). A general warm temperature is perfect for this bacterium. E. coli is also easy to care for it does not need a specific type of nutrient, in a lab setting it can be feed any agar, making the bacteria over all cheaper to care for. Strains of E. coli can also operate in aerobic or anaerobic environments (Koh et al. 2007).
The plasmid pGLO contains a gene which produces GFP, which glows green under florescent light. However the florescence is only seen or expressed in the presence of arabinose, as the GFP will react with the arabinose (Froger and Hall 2007). This engineered plasmid ring of DNA originally comes from Aequorea victoria, a common jellyfish. When pGLO integrated the organism also inherits the ability to resist the antibacterial …show more content…

Much like how in the lab the bacteria were transformed to express the gene GFP, the same gene was used to make zebra danios, and several other species in to a Glofish. Like the E. coli, the Glofish will glow under ultraviolent light. The way the DNA is inserted into the fish cells differs from the E. coli experiment because the fish eggs were more delicate, but the concept of the experiment is the same. The fish are not bioluminescent, but florescent. They don’t just glow normally, a specific light must be over them for the GFP to be expressed. This genetic modification to the fish is a huge business and will not end due to their popularity, the business will likely only grow

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