This week we finished the exciting Lab 4 which is the isolation of E.coli plasmid DNA! We use the GeneJET Plasmid Miniprep Kit to isolate the E.coli plasmid DNA. The basic principle is that the size and conformation (degree of supercoiling) is different for the chromosomal DNA and the plasmid DNA. The solutions required for the isolation are re-suspension solution, lysis solution, neutralization solution, wash solution-contains 80% ethanol, elution buffer, spin column with silica-based membrane and microfuge tubes. In each step, we used the centrifuge to do the centrifugation of the microfuge tubes.

Eventually, we collected the flow-through in the micro-centrifuge tube which is the plasmid DNA of E.coli.

In this lab, we also did the plate count for the lab 3 incubation of bacteria using the pour plate methods.

Lastly, we did the “Day 1” for lab 6. My group’s leafy green vegetable is spinach. It seemed that we were making nutritious smoothie in the lab! LOL

Haha! Actually we were making homogeneous sample solutions and then we used it as the 10^-1 to make a series dilution.

Great! Let’s see the incubation results after 2 weeks.