E. Coli Lab Report

Introduction
Background Information and Research: Inserting a gene from the Aequorea victoria jelly fish into the DNA of rabbits, pigs, and mice genetically modifies them to glow-in-the-dark. The production of specific genes are coded by genes. This particular type of jelly fish naturally glows in the dark because a gene coded for a green fluorescent protein (GFP). The goal of genetically modifying organisms is to have the modified organism produce a protein that has been coded by the inserted gene thus causing the modified organism to express the new trait. Genetically modifying organisms is important because it has had health benefits in the development of vaccines. E.coli is a rod-shaped bacteria that is a part of the Escherichia genus and is commonly found in the intestines. When demonstrating how to genetically modify an organism, E.coli bacteria is commonly used because it is a simple organism whose process for protein production, gene expression, is the same as a complex organisms’ process. In this experiment, a GFP was inserted into E.coli as well as a gene that causes E.coli’s resistance to ampicillin. Half of the agar plates that the bacteria was growing on had ampicillin. Ampicillin kills E.coli, so the successfully modified bacteria will have been grown on those ampicillin plates. Plasmids contain genes that are resistant to antibiotic ampicillin; scientists have used plasmids in the manipulation of genes. Plasmids were used because it is resistant to the ampicillin used, so if the bacteria was

Hypothesis: If a GFP gene is inserted into an E.coli cell, then the E.coli will glow in the dark.
If an antibiotic resistant gene is inserted into bacteria, the bacteria will be resistant to ampicillin.

Parts of the Experiment dependent variable – colony count of glow-in-the-dark bacteria on agar