Students in the AP Biology class successfully transformed E. coli cells with the ampicillin resistance gene (pUC8) in a lab this week. The petri dish on the top left contains colonies of bacteria living on a growth medium containing ampicillin - an antibiotic that kills E. coli. The only reason those colonies exist is because students gave them the ampicillin-resistance gene in the form of a plasmid and the cells are now expressing that gene.
