Question

During the course of an E. coli transformation laboratory, a student forgot to mark the culture tube that received the kanamycin-resistant plasmids. The student proceeds with the laboratory because he thinks that he will be able to determine from his results which culture tube contained cells that may have undergone transformation. Which plate would be most likely to indicate transformed cells?

Answer 1

The plate that contains Kanamycin in it will have growth of colonies of bacteria that have been transformed with the plasmid which has the kanamycin-resistant gene. The bacterial cells that did not get transformed with this plasmid will not be able to grow into colonies in the presence of kanamycin.

While the negative control, a plate with any other antibiotic,such as ampicillin or tetracyclin, added to it will not allow growth of any bacteria on it.

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