By Guest Blogger
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We often think of DNA as inert. It generally stays put, which makes it easy to locate in a genome. But there is a type of mobile DNA, called a transposon, that’s a bit hyperactive and likes to jump around from one location in the genome to another. This jumping is what caught ...
Originally published Aug 3, 2017 and last updated Apr 6, 2021 by Will Arnold. Introducing NGS in 2017 for all incoming plasmids was a big change for Addgene - we had used Sanger sequencing for quality control for over ten years. Now, thanks to a generous donation by the Hirsh ...
Originally published Feb 6, 2014 and last updated Nov 10, 2020. Now that we know all about antibiotic resistance genes, let’s consider another basic element of any plasmid: the origin of replication/replicon. The replicon is comprised of the origin of replication (ori) and all ...
If you’re cloning a plasmid, you’ll need a way to find the needle in the haystack: the one perfect clone that contains the plasmid you’re looking for out of the many cells that don’t. One way to begin the search is by using selection strategies, where only cells that have gained ...
Originally published Jan. 14, 2014 and updated Apr. 14, 2020. Any newcomer who joins a molecular biology lab will undoubtedly be asked to design, modify, or construct a plasmid. A plasmid is a small circular piece of DNA found in bacterial cells, and someone new to plasmids may ...
Plasmid incompatibility is defined as the inability of different plasmids to be maintained in one bacterial cell. In this Plasmids 101 post, we’ll cover why this happens, how it might affect your work, and how understanding it can be used for good. First, why are plasmids ...
You’ve worked hard to purify your gene of interest, get it into your plasmid backbone, and zap the mixture of DNA into cells. Unfortunately, not every cell successfully takes up plasmid DNA. Among those that do, some now have plasmids that contain your gene of interest, but ...
