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Bacterial transformation is the transforming of a bacterial cell using plasmids spliced with various types of DNA from other cells. Instead of a nucleus with chromosomes, bacterial cells have one large circular chromosome in their cell. They also have much smaller rings of DNA throughout their cytosol. These smaller DNA rings are the plasmids which one can manipulate and introduce into cells for transformation to occur. So, the bacteria treated with the pAMP solution developed a resistance to ampicillin and were able to grow on the ampicillin+ plate. Those that were not treated with the pAMP were not able to grow on this
medium. The plates with no ampicillin served as a control to show how the bacteria would look in normal conditions. Transformation is never fully effective. Only cells that are competent enough are able to take up the foreign DNA. Therefore, the ampicillin + plates showed less growth than the control plate.
Possible sources of error in our experiment include inaccurately measuring the number of bacterial colonies that grew on each plate, insufficiently mixing the solutions of DNA after adding restriction enzymes or not returning the mixtures to ice quickly enough after during the heat shock.
Science is constantly developing and modifying the basic technique of transformation. One such modification is used in a Science is constantly developing and modifying the basic technique of transformation. One such modification is used in a promising treatment for otherwise untreatable diseases through a process called gene therapy. Theoretically a molecule can be developed which contains a gene that will help cure a disease or treat an otherwise untreatable symptom. Throug ha process similar to transformation, it is thought that this molecule can be safely delivered to a human and improve the quality of life.