Time to smite some bacteria with sea jelly DNA. FEAR ME!!

 

 In this lab, I will transcend the physical and finally take my rightful place on Mt. Olympus with my fellow Gods and my father Dionysis, the Greek God of Wine, and I'd be BRIK, GOD OF FOUR-LOKO(Alcohol+gasoline+red bull=four loko, according to Stephen Colbert)!!!
                                                                Four Loko Info
                                
Or at least that's what I thought when I read the board on tuesday. What we will actually be doing, in short, is teaching bacteria how to glow in the dark, by making them eat sea jelly DNA.

Background Info:

We will pretty much be performing Genetic Transformation, which literally means "change caused by genes," and it involves the insertion of a gene into an organism to change its behavior/traits. For example, genetic transformation is why E.coli can make human insulin. We will be introducing the GFP, or Green Fluorescent Protein via pGLO plasmids. The pGLO plasmid will carry the data necessary to form GFP, and it will also give the cell a gene that makes it resistant to an antibiotic, which I am assuming is coating the petri dish to prevent contamination of any sort.



The bacteria we will be using during our experiment is E.coli, biology's favorite guinea pig for these types of experiments. We will have to have the pGLO plasmids enter the E.coli, which bacteria in general simply do not do, due to the risk of taking in viral DNA and dying. In order for the bacteria to take in the plasmid, we must use a method called Heat Shock treatment, wherein we douse the plasmids and the E.coli cells in a calcium chloride solution, and rapidly alternate between high and low temperatures. This causes the bacteria to freak out, fear death, and allows the plasmids to pass through the Activation Zones, pores located on the cell's membrane. The reason that the plasmid cannot enter the cell through the activation zones in the first place is because the phospholipid bilayer has negatively charged lipid heads that face both the inside and the outside of the cell, repelling the negatively charged plasmid. During the heat shock treatment, the lipid molecules are slowed down by the low temperatures, making it easier for the calcium ions to bind to them and form an electrically neutral environment, allowing the plasmid to enter the cell.