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A student has forgotten which plasmid she used in her transformation experiment.

ID: 256152 • Letter: A

Question

A student has forgotten which plasmid she used in her transformation experiment. The plasmid could have specified kanamycin, ampicilin or tetracycline resistance. She decides to prepare a series of plated media to determine which plasmid was used. The plates and the test results are shown below. What is the best explanation of these results? [3 pt; L3 A.41 Plate 2 Plate 4 Plate 1 LB agar Plate 3 LB/kanamycin agar agar agar Plate 3 reveals E. coli that has been transformed to be resistant to kanamycin. There are no tetracycline-resistant cells on Plate 2 O There are no ampicillin-resistant cells on Plate 4 O Plate 1 is a positive control.

Explanation / Answer

Upon successful transformation the plasmid would be able to confer a new property upon the host cell. As such the plates containing antimicrobial susbtsances would show growth and colony formation if the resistance conferred by the plasmid matches the antimicrobial substance added.
Plate 3 reveals E. coli has been transformed to be resistant to kanamycin

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