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E. Coli Lab Report

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Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is a common bacterium that can be found in diverse environments all over the planet, including the gastrointestinal tracts of animals and humans. Many of these strains of E. Coli are essential mechanisms in the digestive tract, while others are pathogens that can cause complications in urinary and intestinal tracts. (Payne & Sparks) In research, E. Coli is commonly used as a model organism, meaning they are widely studied by scientists for a variety of purposes due to their experimental advantages. E. Coli is comparatively simple, and there are many advantages to studying these prokaryotic cells in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. E. Coli has this simplicity and is relatively easy to propagate in a lab environment. Their genome has been completely sequenced and many things we know about DNA, protein synthesis, and gene linkage have been derived from studies regarding this particular organism. (Cooper)
Certain E. Coli strains are also known to show resistance to bacteria killing antibiotics. This resistance is due to the plasmids, or small round DNA molecules, in the bacteria that carry the resistant genes. R Plasmids (resistance plasmids) are widely studied and bestow resistance to factors that inhibit growth of the organism. R plasmids code for proteins that can …show more content…

Coli. The first standard E. Coli has no resistance plasmid while the second strain contains a resistance plasmid with genes protecting it from ampicillin. This standard E. Coli and pAMP (plasmid-Ampicillin) E. Coli were each streaked across plates containing the antibiotic and containing growth supportive Lurithea Broth. The purpose of this lab was to test their growth in each medium. Our hypothesis was that while the ampicillin resistant E. Coli would show growth in both LB and LB-AMP plate, the standard E. Coli would only grow in the LB plate for it contains no resistant plasmids against the

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