Anyone joining a molecular biology lab for the first time will be required to create, edit, or design a plasmid. A plasmid is a tiny, circular piece of DNA in bacterial cells. For someone unfamiliar with plasmids, it may be helpful to have some further explanations of the various parts of plasmids and their respective functions. This guide will give you a basic overview of plasmids and how they are used in genetic applications.

What are plasmids?

Plasmids are circular-shaped genetic components of DNA molecules found outside the bacterial chromosome in the cytoplasm of bacterial cells. They reproduce autonomously since they are not a part of the chromosome. Nevertheless, plasmids must grow within the cell by increasing the number of chromosomes. They vary in size and the amount of copies they contain within the cell.

Genes carried by plasmids provide cells with extra characteristics, but they are not essential for cellular survival and have no impact on the health of the cell. Several drugs can kill plasmids and remove them from the cell by preventing their proliferation.

Plasmids are used in the techniques and studies of genetic engineering by gene transmission to cells of superior organisms or bacterial cells. That may be other plants, animals, or other living things to improve their growth rates, disease resistance, or any other required traits.

How are plasmids used in research?

Scientists commonly use plasmids to control the expression of specific genes in target cells. Thanks to their adaptability, safety, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility, molecular biologists widely use plasmids in various applications, including whole plasmid sequencing. Cloning plasmids, expression plasmids, reporter plasmids, gene knock-down plasmids, viral plasmids, and plasmids for genome engineering are typical plasmid types.

Plasmids are capable of a wide range of things, some of which are as follows:

• Make a protein in vast quantities so that researchers may purify and carefully analyze it.
• Make luminescent proteins so researchers can monitor their location or number inside a cell.
• Track the presence of a chemical in a particular area
• Create (genome-engineering) enzymes that can change an organism’s genome in a precise, regulated way.
• Create artificial viruses for study or clinical purposes.

How is a plasmid created in a laboratory?

Lab plasmids are frequently called “vectors” or “constructs” due to their synthetic character. Scientists can use several cloning techniques (restriction enzyme, ligation independent, Gateway, Gibson, etc.) to splice a desired gene into a vector. Ultimately, the plasmid you want to clone into will determine your cloning technique.

After the cloning procedures are finished, the vector bearing the newly inserted gene is nonetheless turned into bacterial cells and cultured only on antibiotic plates. Researchers may quickly produce vast quantities of plasmids to alter and employ in subsequent work because the bacteria from which plasmids are isolated proliferate and produce new plasmids as they do so.

Wrapping up

Plasmids are appealing tools for life scientists and bioengineers because of how simple it is to change them and how well they can multiply themselves inside a cell.