5 Things You Didn’t Know about Plasmids

Rosanna Hartline (RosieScienceGal), CC BY-SA 4.0 Plasmids are powerful biotechnologies. These unsung heroes have been rocking the world of molecular biology since the 1950s with their independently replicating swagger. While they may seem small, circular, and straightforward, there's a lot…

Biotech Basics: DNA Ligase – Building a Bridge with DNA

DNA ligase is one of the most important, but least celebrated, enzymes used in modern biotechnology. This enzyme plays a very important role in DNA replication and repair by acting like a “glue” that can connect different DNA fragments to…

Five Ways to Improve Your Transformation Experiments

Transformation is the process through which bacteria can pick up foreign DNA from the surrounding environment. The newly acquired genetic information is both stable and heritable. In the laboratory, we can transform bacteria with small, circular pieces of DNA called…

Biotechnology Basics: Bacterial Transformation

What is transformation? In nature, some species of bacteria can acquire exogenous DNA from the surrounding environment through a process called transformation. The newly acquired genetic information is both stable and heritable. In the laboratory, scientists can force bacteria like…