Science News

Glen Innes High School Yr.12 Biology created Fluorescent E.coli!

This term the senior Biology students carried out a process called Bacterial Transformation. They selected some E.coli colonies from a source agar plate and suspended the colonies in a solution of calcium chloride. They then added a plasmid (circular piece of DNA) containing the genes for Ampicillin resistance and Green Fluorescent Protein - GFP for short. Finally, they used the heat-shock method to make the E.coli take up the plasmid and then plated the bacteria on fresh agar plates. The plates were incubated over the weekend and low and behold, when we had class on Monday the students were able to see the genetically modified E.coli that now glow green under UV light. The discovery of GFP from Jellyfish was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008. This fluorescent protein is now widely used in research across the world. Well done class on a great experiment with glowing results!