I am part of a project elucidating some structures that are required for bacteri

Question

I am part of a project elucidating some structures that are required for bacterial transformation. We have the opportunity to screen inhibitors of the system to stop it from functioning. I am not a microbiologist and have never worked with transformation, and this research process would be time and resource intensive. I am weighing up the pros and cons, however am struggling with how the inhibitors could be practically applied.

How useful would stopping transformation be? My thoughts so far boil down to:

Could it enhance controls by allowing two separate strains to grow on the same plate without any genetic conference?

Could it be applied to stop contamination of genetic information from otherwise insignificant contaminants?

Are there any other problems that transformation is causing in laboratory experiments?

Explanation / Answer

In the research lab? I thought about it for a while and found no usage. But it could be interesting for clinical applications to prevent bacteria spreading their resistance genes (which are usually organized on extra chromosomal plasmids) and thus preventing multi-resistant bacteria.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.