Lambda DNA: Restriction Endonuclease And DNA Crease

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Restriction enzymes and DNA ligase are very important parts in theprocess of molecular cloning. In this experiment, Lambda DNA was digested using restriction enzyme HindIII and then ligated back together using DNA ligase. The partially ligated DNA and the fully ligated DNA were compared to the original DNA side by side on an agarose gel. The results showed that a significant amount of Lambda DNA was digested and the ligation stages had visible progress.

Introduction Restriction enzymes (restriction endonuclease) are enzymes that cut DNA at a specific region of nucleotide sequences, known as the restriction site. To cut the DNA, restriction enzymes make two incisions, one through each strand, or sugar-phosphate backbone. After cutting, another …show more content…

On the side, another batch of lambda DNA (1.68 µL) was mixed with nuclease free water (3.32 µL).
During the incubation, in an Erlenmeyer flask, 1X Tris Acetate EDTA (1 mL) and powder agarose (0.4 g) were dissolved in dH2O (49 mL). Then the solution was microwave for 2 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature. Then SafeRed concentrate (2.5 µL) was added to the solution and it was poured into the gel box and allowed to solidify.
After the incubation, the sample was heated at 80 °C for 20 minutes to inactivate HindIII, then cooled to room temperature. During this step, two “stop” tubes labeled 1’ and 10’ each containing 50 mM EDTA (5 µL) were prepared. After the inactivation, the DNA solution (5 µL) was transferred into another tube labeled “cut”. For the remaining DNA, 1X final ligase buffer (2.5 µL), T4 DNA ligase (1 µL), and nuclease free water (6.5 µL) were added and incubated at room temperature. After 1 minute, the solution (10 µL) was transferred to the 1’ stop tube. After 10 minutes, the remaining solution (10 µL) was transferred to the 10’ stop tube. Finally, DNA gel-loading buffer (3 µL) was added to the “cut” tube, 1’ stop tube, and 10’ stop …show more content…

From the cut DNA lane, the digestion reaction worked, as evidenced by several visible bands in that lane, but it did not go to 100% completion. The 1’ stop lane has largely one band, but it also has several faint bands, which means that the DNA fragment has begun to ligase back together. In the 10’ stop lane, there is one band, which means that the fragments are largely ligated back together.

Summary and Discussion The restriction digest did not go to completion because the top band is very large and almost the same size as the uncut DNA, which means that some DNA fragments have been digested and most of them are still intact. Also there are no bands at the bottom of the lane because fragments are very large by themselves. In the future, this can be improved by allowing more time to digest during incubating and heating, or using enzymes that have 100% activity instead of enzymes that were stored for a long time. The band pattern seemed to match the calculated, but have some bands supposedly missing, according to the Table 1 below. On the gel, there is a faint band at ~700 bp, a band at ~2000 bp, a band at ~4500 bp, and a band at ~7000 bp. These bands correspond to #7, #6, #4, and #3, respectively on the left table.
Table 1. Predicted band pattern when the lambda DNA is cut by

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