The Use of Plasmid DNA from E. coli to Determine the Relative Frequency of Plasmids in Bacteria of Lake Michigan

The contamination of the world’s water sources has become a major problem. Lake Michigan, a recreational water source, has become vastly polluted primarily by antibiotic resistant strains of E. coli. In the project the hypothesis that there are varied populations of plasmids in the enteric bacteria of Lake Michigan was tested. A scheme was developed that utilized plasmid probes to evaluate bacteria from Lake Michigan water samples and determine the relative frequency of each type of plasmid. A probe, synthesized from SS 6.25 Mac B DNA, proved to show specificity when tested with other DNA samples. During colony hybridization the Mac B probe was found to not be specific enough. A new probe was synthesized from TaqI cut SS 6.25 Mac B DNA and used in colony hybridization. The implications of the results that were achieved in this experiment show that a viable method wa