CH391L/S13/GeneticMarkers

Introduction

The ability to introduce exogenous DNA into an organism to alter its genetic program is one of the most crucial tools in modern biology. Early work showed that certain bacteria could acquire the traits of a related strain through the addition of heat-killed cells. Although it was not well understood at the time, the transfer of gene-encoding DNA from one strain to another facilitated this. This concept was turned into a useful tool upon the advent of bacterial plasmid transformations in the early 1970's, which allowed genes of interest to be easily inserted into E. coli. Over the years, methods have been developed to introduce exogenous genes into a wide range of useful organisms, including bacteria, yeasts, plants, and animal tissues. These methods vary enormously in efficiency however, necessitating a way to identify and isolate cells which contain the DNA of interest. This can be accomplished either by screening for successfully modified cells, or through selection.

References

1. Muranaka N, Sharma V, Nomura Y, and Yokobayashi Y. An efficient platform for genetic selection and screening of gene switches in Escherichia coli. Nucleic Acids Res. 2009 Apr;37(5):e39. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkp039 |

   Riboswitch selection/screening using a tetA-GFP fusion marker