Team:Davidson-MissouriW/MeasuringExpression

iGEM Davidson – MWSU 2010: PUT HEADER HERE

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   Results from past Davidson and Missouri Western research hinted at the presence of a transcriptional terminator within the TetA gene. Any gene located downstream of the 3’ end of the TetA gene did not appear to be expressed. This gene codes for an effluent pump that physically removes the antibody tetracycline from the cell.    To test for the presence of this terminator, we created a construct with a fluorescent protein gene downstream of TetA. If TetA really does block transcription, we would expect to see no fluorescence despite induction of the promoter that precedes the construct. We also tested this construct to see if the gene products provided protection from tetracycline compared to a negative control.    The data suggest that the IPTG (.5mM) inducer decreases cell density in all three cell types. In addition, the construct with TetA before RFP was only able to survive the presence of tetracycline (50ug/mL) when the inducer IPTG was present. These data imply that the inducer did increase gene expression even if overall cell density decreased. The construct fluoresced very little in comparison with the positive control (pLac+RBS+RFP) no matter what the conditions. The data support the hypothesis that there is a transcriptional terminator in the TetA gene.