Transduction of an Antibiotic-Resistance Gene Kit (with perishables)

Intermediate—Easy to perform; requires some background knowledge.
In this easy exercise, students observe a natural method of gene transfer. The harmless bacterial virus T4 transmits an ampicillin-resistance gene to E. coli. Students also observe the killing of E. coli by the bacteriophage. For more advanced students, a discussion of nonsense mutations and nonsense suppressing mutations is included with the teacher background information. Kit comes with perishable materials. Kit is designed for 16 to 32 students working in groups of 2 or 4 (8 stations).