Genetic Engineering Using Plasmids and Antibiotic Markers Flashcards

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What is a plasmid in bacteria?

A plasmid is a small, circular piece of DNA found in bacteria, separate from the main chromosome.

A vector is something that carries a useful gene into another cell, such as a plasmid carrying a new gene into bacteria.

Plasmids are easy to remove, cut, join to new genes, and put back into bacteria, and they copy themselves inside the cell.

A recombinant plasmid is a plasmid that has had a gene from another organism joined into it.

Scientists remove plasmids from bacteria and cut them open so a new gene can be added.

The plasmid and the chosen gene are cut, then the gene is joined into the plasmid using an enzyme called ligase.

The recombinant plasmids are mixed with bacteria, which are treated so that they take up the plasmids from the solution.

It is a gene added to the plasmid that makes bacteria able to survive a particular antibiotic.

Bacteria are grown on agar containing the antibiotic, and only cells that have taken up plasmids with the resistance gene can grow and form colonies.

Because only some bacteria take up the plasmid, the antibiotic marker lets scientists pick out and grow only the genetically engineered bacteria.