Day 20 -- pGLO

Last night the discussion in "Your Inner Fish" was all about the Sonic Hedgehog gene. Once present, it can be altered with the presence of Vitamin A, with which it causes the development of extra limbs on an animal or person. Viruses inject their own DNA into that of their host, causing changes (that may be used for cancer and disease research in the future.). 

So with DNA at hand, our plan was to add a protein to an E-Coli bacteria culture. 

Our lab is as follows:  
Our goal is to change the DNA of a culture of E-Coli so that it produces a protein that glows in the dark, making each of the bacteria have the glowing effect. We will do so via heat shock, bringing the temperature to a constant heat, then cooling it off for a few seconds, then heating it again. 

We wiped the bacteria, which were added to the small tubes before the heat shock, to each of the petri dishes. One of them was unmodified, which was to produce no change. One of them received no protein for ampacillin, and that one was killed off by the addition of ampacillin. But the other two, which had the resistance, produced much different results. The bacteria culture modified with the resistance to ampacillin thrived even in the harsher conditions. Finally, the bacteria with resistance to ampacillin and the glowing protein activator continued to grow until visible to the human eye, and glowed when exposed to UV light. 

After a few days, the cultures would not continue growing. This is due to the lack of food source (the broth added to the petri dishes), on which the bacteria feast. When there is no food, the process of mitosis stops, and the bacteria can no longer reproduce.