Pglo Transformation Lab Report

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Abstract: Transformation is the process of uptaking naked DNA by a competent cell. The ability of a cell to go through transformation can be natural or induced. The purpose of this experiment was to verify induced transformation in naturally incompetent E. coli HB101. The pGLO plasmid was the means of transformation in this experiment. The pGLO plasmid contains three core genes: the bla gene encoding for ampicillin resistance, the gfp gene encoding for the green fluorescent protein, and the araC gene which activates the gfp gene in the presence of arabinose. The CaCl2 – heat shock method was used to transform E. coli HB101. After plating the bacteria, the petri dishes containing LB as a nutrient were incubated for 24 hours in a 37°C incubator. …show more content…

coli HB101 strain with the pGLO plasmid. The HB101 strain is a wild strain of E. coli that lacks plasmids and it is useful for the study of bacterial transformation [10]. The pGLO plasmid is a genetically modified plasmid containing the bla gene, the gfp gene, and the arabinose repressor (araC) gene [6]. The bla gene encodes the β-lactamase enzyme, which binds to the β-lactam ring of penicillin and its derivatives providing antibiotic resistance to bacteria. The gfp gene is a gene derived from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria and encodes the green fluorescent protein, a protein that is green under UV light. The araC gene encodes a repressor protein that activates the gfp gene when arabinose is present in the medium used. In the pGLO plasmid the genes that permit arabinose catabolism have been substituted by the gfp gene [1]. The medium used was Lysogeny (or Luria) broth, a nutrient rich medium that permits faster E. coli growth [12]. The E. coli were inoculated in a CaCl2 solution, which aids in the binding of plasmids to the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) membranes of E. coli by attracting the negatively charged backbone of the plasmid and the negatively charged core of the LPS with the Ca2+ ions. A heat shock process was also used to facilitate the uptake of the pGLO into the E. coli cells

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