Team:Auburn Alabama/Results
Results
Results of the Nickel “Kirby Bauer” Experiments
We found that at 5e8 ng/ml and 5e7 ng/ml of nickel acetate, most of surrounding cells died and a zone of inhibition formed. However, at all lower concentrations, nickel did not inhibit the growth of the cells on the plate. Even after extended periods in the incubator, none of our transformed cells expressed the cjblue protein in nickel. Blue color was not present.
Analysis
We did not have the resources to get our plasmids Sanger sequences, so we are unsure if there may have been a mutation in the gene. Although we cannot know for sure, the presence of a mutation is a possible reason why our cells did not express the blue chromoprotein. A less likely possibility is that the gene may only express the blue chromoprotein at lethal concentrations of nickel. The promoter may only be responsive to concentrations of nickel that kill the cell.