Question

lesson 4.1 quiz

1. what role does injecting insulin play in someone with type 1 diabetes? (1pt)

1. why are bacteria like e. coli so useful for producing human proteins like insulin? (1pt)

1. describe how the following terms are connected to each other in regards to the lab we did in class.

highlight or underline each term (5pts):

• jellyfish
• gene
• plasmid
• ampicillin
• green fluorescent protein (gfp)
• iptg
• e. coli bacteria
• ultraviolet light
• chemical transformation
• heat shock

Explanation:

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1. Type 1 diabetics cannot produce endogenous insulin. Injected insulin acts as a replacement hormone to signal cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream, lowering blood glucose levels and allowing cells to use glucose for energy, preventing hyperglycemia and its complications.
2. E. coli has a fast growth rate, is easy to culture in lab settings, has well-understood genetics, can accept recombinant plasmids carrying human insulin genes, and can rapidly express and produce large quantities of the target human protein in an affordable, scalable way.
3. The gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is isolated from a Jellyfish. This gene is inserted into a Plasmid alongside an ampicillin resistance gene and IPTG-inducible promoter. The engineered plasmid is introduced to E. coli bacteria via Chemical transformation followed by Heat shock to encourage plasmid uptake. Ampicillin is used as a selective antibiotic to kill any non-transformed E. coli that do not carry the plasmid. IPTG is added to induce the bacteria to express the GFP gene. Finally, Ultraviolet light is used to visualize the glowing GFP protein produced by the surviving, successfully transformed bacteria.

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Answer:

1. Injected insulin replaces the missing endogenous insulin to regulate blood glucose by enabling cells to absorb and use blood glucose.
2. E. coli is useful because it is cheap to culture, grows quickly, has well-characterized genetics, can accept recombinant plasmids, and mass-produce the target human protein efficiently.
3. The terms connect as a complete bacterial transformation and protein expression workflow as detailed in the explanations above.