1. University of Puerto Rico<br />Cayey Campus<br />Jessica Díaz Rivera<br />Prof. Elena Gonzalez<br />RISE Program<br />Laboratory #7: pGLO Genetic Transformation and SDS Page Extension<br /> A gene is a piece of DNA, which provides the instructional codes for proteins. Genetic transformation means “change caused by genes”, and involves the insertion of a gene into an organism in order to change the organism’s trait. The objective of this laboratory was to transform bacteria, in this case E. coli, with a gene that is from a jellyfish and codes for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). We used a transformation solution (CaCI2) in each sample. To maintain the area aseptic we used the burner to work with bacteria. Later we used a sterile loop to pick up a single colony of bacteria from the starter plate. After incubating all of the samples,. we put 100 micro liters of each sample in the appropriate agar plate. In the next laboratory, we qualitatively examined the GFP on agar plates. Then we identified the protein in polyacrylamide gel (SDS-PAGE electrophoresis). We did the SDS-PAGE in the .75 ml electrophoresis, but we could not put all the samples into the gel because of the density of the solution. The gel had ten lanes, 5 with UV illumination downstream process and the other 5 with Coomassie staining. It also contained, four samples: white and green heat and white and green no heat. As a result, we saw the GFP protein in the 27 kD in the gel. We also learned how to use the BIO RAD Molecular Imager Gel Doc machine to take a photo of the gel.<br />