What is dna transformation and how does it work?

Question

I did a lab in my class. We were supposed to transform E. coli with green flourescent protein of jelly fish.
Though I kinda get the idea. I don't really know what transformation is and how the process work.
Please explain it to me.
Thank you. :]

Answer 1

Basically, transformation is the introduction of foreign DNA (such as green fluorescent protein (GFP)) into bacteria. Bacteria such as E. coli have circular genomic DNA and they have extra DNA called "plasmids" which they can use to adapt to conditions. Bacteria can acquire or lose plasmids depending on their need to express the protein.

Usually, you transform bacteria that have been made "competent" meaning that little holes have been made in the bacteria that allow plasmid DNA to get in and be expressed. It gets in through the "heat shock" step of transformation.

When you transform E. coli with jellyfish GFP, you are putting the gene for GFP on a plasmid that also contains an antibiotic resistence gene (such as ampicillin, kanamycin, etc.) By growing the bacteria in the presence of the antibiotic, you will select for bacteria that have taken up the GFP/Antibiotic resistence plasmid (as bacteria without plasmids will die).

Answer 2

Transformation is a term used to describe a cell taking up foreign DNA, expressing the gene(s) in that DNA, and thereby having their nature somehow 'transformed'.
In the lab, the most common way of doing transformations is to entice a cell to take up a plasmid (small circle of DNA) carrying the gene you are studying (green seajelly gene) and some sort of selectable marker (ie resistance to an antibiotic).
After treating the cells appropriately (carefully removing their cell walls, while not popping them with osmotic pressure), they are exposed to the plasmid. Some cells take up the plasmid. All the cells are plated on medium designed to kill any cells which didn't take up the plasmid. (For example, if the selectable marker is ampicillin resistance, the plate would contain ampicillin.) Finally, because the remaining cells all contain the plasmid, they also are able to express the other gene(s) on it, for example the gene for glowing greenly like a jellyfish!

Answer 3

If it changed its DNA in all of its billions of cells, it would still take weeks to years for it to transform. DNA tells your body to produce the proteins that make up your organs and tissues. If you change your DNA then your body still has to make all of those new proteins, and that could take weeks to replace all of the proteins in your body. So no, it wouldn't make sense scientifically. It would die in the middle of this transformation anyway, being made of completely random proteins. Though, if you've ever seen the movie District 9 this same thing happens (though the man doesn't mean for it to). It takes him many weeks to change from a human into an alien "Prawn", changing a very small amount at a time.