E. Coli Culture Lab Report

The focus of this lab was to identify which plasmid (pFG or pGLO) transformed into E. coli culture. E. coli have the capability to take up foreign DNA from their environment in times of stress. In order for the E. coli to be transformed, the E. coli must first be made competent. Once the culture has been made competent, the cells can transform. The plasmid that was inserted into the E. coli culture contained antibiotic-resistant gene and a reporter gene. A reporter gene is a gene that is easy to detect, and for this lab it could be pGLO or pFG. After the cells were transformed the bacteria that did not uptake the plasmid needed to be killed in a process called antibiotic selection. Antibiotic selection is an artificial selection to ensure only bacteria that were transformed remained on the plate. Furthermore, this allows the plasmid to be identified much easier. Two methods were then used to determine which plasmid (PFG or Pglo) was transformed into the E. coli culture. …show more content…
coli culture by inducing gene expression. There are two ways to typically induce gene expression in E. coli. Lactose is a common way to activate promoters in E. coli, and in this lab a chemical IPTG was used. The promoter in the pFG gene can be activated by IPTG and the gene will be inactive if IPTG is absent. Another common promoter is arabinose. When this sugar is present, the pGlo promoter will be turned on, and when it is absent, the promoter will be turned off. Therefore, based on which plate displayed the fluorescent phenotype, the plasmid can be