In: Biology
Why are cells inoculated on agar plates for bacterial transformation, as compared to liquid culture in growth bacterial?
Answer: Transformation is the process by which bacteria can take naked DNA from their environment. In case of laboratory transformation experiments the naked DNA which the bacteria may uptake contains genes that encode some proteins or factors which provides resistance to the bacteria against certain factors or chemicals such as antibiotics and other gene of interest. So when we culture or inoculate the bacteria onto a agar plate containing the antibiotic or chemical, only those bacteria will grow and produce colonies which take up the naked DNA and became transformed that means they are resistant to that antibiotic. As the normal bacteria is susceptible or sensitive to that particular antibiotic or chemical agent, they will not survive and hence no colonies were produced by them. So if we inoculate the cells on agar plate for transformation, there is a high chances of getting pure colonies or isolated colonies of transformed cells and thereby get assurance that our gene of interest is expressing in those cells whereas if we inoculate the cells to a liquid culture there is no possibility of getting pure or isolated colonies of transformed bacterial cells.