Halobacteria Lab Report

The wild type and the mutant type strains of Halobacteria were used in this experiment to examine the phenotypic differences against each strain’s genotypes. The mutant strain (KBT-1) did not possess gas vesicles, which decreased its ability to float to the surface. The lack of gas vesicles in the mutant strain made the colonies a red color. The wild type strain (NRC-1) had gas vesicles and appeared a pink pigment color. Growth on the agar allowed one to examine the specific colonies. Inoculation and growth in the liquid culture were done to examine both strains of Halobacteria in the aqueous solutions. DNA extraction was done to take DNA from the Halobacteria strains and examine their genotypes. The PCR reaction’s purpose was to locate specific
Halobacteria are a kind of extremophile, and they are often experimented and observed in order to see how organisms can survive in extreme environments. Halobacteria are also useful by being a good organism to perform DNA transcription, translation, and transformation on (Kramer, 2006).
There are two different types of Halobacteria that are being observed in this lab. The first is NRC-1, which is also called the wild type strain. Although the pigmentation of the Halobacteria is caused by the production of the membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin, which is a red, the wild type strain is pink in color. This pink color occurs because the wild type strain produces gas vesicles that change the angle of the incoming light so that the color of the colonies seem to be lighter. The second type of Halobacteria is KBT-1, also called the mutant strain. This strain appears in a red color. This red color appears because the mutant strain does not produce gas vesicles. Without the gas vesicles, the light not is being absorbed into the pigments, making the mutant strain appear red (Walsby,