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Asked by: Essaddik Tranchida
business and finance biotech and biomedical industryDo all the white and blue colonies contain a plasmid?
Correspondingly, why are some colonies blue and some white?
Any colony containing the plasmid (and therefore the functioning β-galactosidase gene) will turn blue, a result of the β-galactosidase activity. This is called α-complementation. The insert disrupted the β-galactosidase gene, and therefore these colonies remain white.
People also ask, what do blue colonies signify?
Blue colonies therefore show that they may contain a vector with an uninterrupted lacZα (therefore no insert), while white colonies, where X-gal is not hydrolyzed, indicate the presence of an insert in lacZα which disrupts the formation of an active β-galactosidase.
A plasmid is a small, circular, double-stranded DNA molecule that is distinct from a cell's chromosomal DNA. Plasmids naturally exist in bacterial cells, and they also occur in some eukaryotes. Often, the genes carried in plasmids provide bacteria with genetic advantages, such as antibiotic resistance.