Question

Brainstorm how you could use recombinant DNA technology to make normal E. coli bacterial cells glow green.

Answer 1

Answer:

In order to make E. coli bacterial cells glow green, we need to insert a gene that can be translated into the green fluorescent protein. This gene is well-known as gfp and can be inserted either in the DNA or plasmid of the bacteria. The genome insertion procedure would follow the conventional method where the DNA will be first cut using restriction enzymes and then would be ligated. This approach has been extensively applied to test the fate of bacteria in the environmental systems.

A schematic diagram on insertion of gfp in the plasmid of bacteria is shown in the figure. The left side diagram shows that gfp is inserted and right side figure shows glowing bacteria in the presence of UV.