Nina Nissan 20016729 BIOL 212-009 September 27, 2019 Cell Lab Introduction Medical fields all over the world have developed and improved tremendously over the last few decades; leading into new scientific discoveries. The doctors prescribing pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics and the laws on obtaining them have allowed easy accessibility for patients. Pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics have proven their benefits; however, if used continuously and irresponsibly, it could potentially lead to illnesses that cannot be treated by more medication. A great example is Penicillin- a widely used antibiotic that has saved the lives of millions of patients. Aside from its convenience, there has been an increase in hospital-acquired infections indicating a new penicillin-resistant bacterial strain which has evolved (Kent 1978). This penicillin-resistant bacterial strain is known as Petera parkensis and extended research suggests that the penicillinase gene found codes for an enzyme that is responsible for the breakdown of penicillin (Wayne et al. 2006). Scientists are unaware of what possible mutations could occur or where the deletion of several N-terminal amino acids may be are responsible for this resistance (Prince et Trevor. 2012). The research discovered proposes the idea that if performing CRISPR-mediated deletions of the first 21 nucleotides of the penicillinase gene over time, would this yield to bacteria (P.parkensis) that are no longer resistant to penicillin? Using the CRISPR-mediated deletions, we deleted the first 21 nucleotides on the N-terminus of the penicillinase genes. We know that this
will make changes to DNA sequence so that it codes P. parkensis bacteria that are unresistant to Penicillin. We incubated the mutated P.Parkensis separately from the resistant P.Parkensis in liquid media within tubes for 4 hours consecutively. During the halfway mark of 4 hours, we added 100 ug/ml of Penicillin to each of the tubes and the number of live bacteria per tube was recorded at every hour. The experiment conducted confirms that immunity to penicillin attributes to the essential first 21 nucleotides based on the results obtained from the graph.
Literature References Kent, C. 1978. Evolution of a new penicillin-resistant bacterial strain. Journal of Superbugs 83: 1367-1378. Prince, D. and Trevor, S. 2012. Molecular tailoring of the penicillinase gene. Molecular tailoring of the penicillinase gene 8:196-202 Wayne, B., R. Obin and T. H. E. Joker. 2006. Microbial Genetics. Complete sequence of the penicillinase gene. 22:234-241.