Academic Biology

Bacteria Transformation Lab

Jack Cornetti
Biology Period 5
May 27, 2016

Introduction:
In this paper, I seek to explain the transformation of bacteria. The transformation of
bacteria is used to make multiple copies of DNA making them into direct clones. A plasmid is a
DNA molecule in a cell that is split from a chromosome and can independently replicated. In this
project, we used recombinant DNA, an artificially made strand of DNA that is formed by
combining two or more genes. The purpose of this lab was to see if bacteria will grow when
crossed with a gene from another organism. It is hypothesized that if we take ecoli and a gene
from a jellyfish and introduced it to bacteria, we would see growth. Bacterial growth is when
the number of bacterial cells multiplies that is an increase in the bacterial population size with
each cell having identical DNA similar to the parent cell (Pommerville, 2010). This means that
the size of the bacteria population multiplies and has the same DNA as the parent cell. This is
like cloning.

Materials:

2 Test Tubes
4 Petri Dishes
5 Pipets
Ice Water Beaker
Warm Water in Beaker
2 Inoculating Loop
Luria Broth
Bacteria (Ecoli)
Calcium Chloride

Procedure:
See Lab Manual (Rapoza, M., & Kreuzer, H,)

Results:
The results of the project was as follows; my groups petri dishes showed no growth of
replication of the bacteria. Only one group in my class had a petri dish that showed growth.

Discussion:
The results of my project turned out this way possibly because the procedure was done
wrong. This could be because we didnt properly shock the bacteria because of time restraints.
This means that my hypothesis was not correct. If the project was done correctly, the bacteria
would have grown and have the jellyfish gene allowing it to glow in the dark.