Conclusion

The hypothesis, E. coli samples not exposed to UV light will be have a higher rates of pGAL plasmid transformation success indicated by a higher blue colony count, was supported. E. coli plated with pGAL plasmid that was not exposed to UV light had higher transformation efficiency than E. coli plated with pGAL plasmid exposed to UV light. Furthermore E. coli with pGAL plasmid introduced and plated on media with ampicillin had more growth than E. coli without pGAL plasmid introduced and plated on ampicillin. Plates with ampicillin in the media inoculated with E. coli that had not been transformed with the pGAL plasmid showed no growth, indicating that the pGAL plasmid successfully codes for ampicillin resistance. Plates without ampicillin in the media inoculated with E. coli that had not been transformed by the pGAL (Control) all showed growth indicating that the E. coli was alive but did not die with radiation treatment indicating the treatment damaged the E. coli but did not kill it, as intended.
To ensure that chemicals introduced to E. coli for the successful transformation of the pGAL plasmid did not, in fact, hinder bacterial growth, and thereby skewing data, K12 E. coli was plated with each of the transformation chemicals provided. Throughout this series of testing it was found that transformation solutions provided for the pGAL plasmid transformation had no hindering effects on the growth of E. coli. Thus, solutions introduced had no adversary effects on data collected.