Pglo Plasmid Lab Report

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The green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene is a naturally occurring gene from a bioluminescent jellyfish. The gene allows for objects and animals to glow in the dark when activated by the presence of the sugar arabinose in the pGLO plasmid. The GFP gene is often used as a marker for gene expression and genetic transformation. The pGLO plasmid is a genetically engineered plasmid used as a vector in biotechnology to generate genetically modified organisms(GMO). M. Chalfie et. al. (1994) explain that a complementary DNA for GFP produces a fluorescent product when expressed in E. coli cells as the expression of GFP can be used to monitor gene expression and protein localization in living things.
In this experiment the heat shock method will be used to deliver a vector (plasmid) of GFP to transform and grow E. coli bacteria. Four plates containing Luria Bertani (LB) broth and either –pGLO and +pGLO will have E. coli bacteria added to it. The plate containing –pGLO (no pGLO) and LB will show growth as ampicillin will be present killing bacteria but no glowing because no arabinose will be present for glowing to be activated, the same result will be seen in the plate containing +pGLO, LB and ampicillin. The plate with –pGLO, LB and ampicillin will show no growth and no glowing as no arabinose is present for glowing to be activated
Another weakness being not effectively utilizing the heat shock method of genetic transformation, the transformation solution of calcium chloride could not have gotten cold enough when sitting on the ice bath for certain periods of time. This lowers the effectiveness of heat shock genetic transformation as the plasma membrane of the cells do not become permeable enough to be able to take up the foreign DNA that it is being exposed

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