Chicago State University, Department of Biological Sciences, Chicago, IL 60628
The Bcl-2 protein family members are potent regulators of apoptosis that can influence the permeability of the outer mitochondrial membrane. They do this either by forming autonomous pores in the membrane or by collaborating with components of the permeability transition pore. Mitochondrion acts as an essential decision centre in many types of apoptotic responses. It releases death promoting factors from intermembrane space into the cytosol and it produces ATP. In this presentation I will be discussing the transformation of BL21DE3 competent cells, purification of Wild Type Bax, and monitoring the growth and response of bacterium. Transformation is the genetic change in a bacterium after exposure to and recombination with an isolated DNA. This is regularly done in order to amplify cloned DNA. Another reason is to obtain quantities of a particular protein. The bacteria are transformed with DNA. Bacteria were purified and eluted. Elution was used to collect the Bax protein separately. The protein was visualized using 15% SDS-PAGE coomassie stained gel. Monitoring the growth and response of bacterium was fascinating and has led to future experimentation. Anthony Isom, Jr. was supported by NSF-URC
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