CELL TRANSFORMATION IN TOBACCO LEAF DISKS

Students work with whole plant material and are not required to measure small quantities, yet they can see evidence of transformed plant cells (plant cells that have genes from bacterial plasmids). This is a laboratory suitable for students who are familiar with the basic principles of plant cell structure, tissue culture, sterile technique, and cell transformation (bacterial infection, plasmid vectors, marker genes, selection medium, and enzyme activity assays).