microbiology
Troubleshooting no transformants
How to read an empty antibiotic plate after transforming non-pathogenic E. coli, using a control plasmid to split cells from DNA.
8 October 2026 · 7 min read
Topic cluster
Microbiology
Bacterial culture, transformation and plating for cloning strains, with selection logic and biosafety boundaries.
All topicsBuffers and laboratory water26Cell culture26Chromatography26Cold chain and sample storage26Cytometry and microscopy26DNA sequencing26Gels and blotting26Gene expression26Genome editing26Immunoassays26Laboratory labware26Laboratory safety26Liquid handling26Microbiology26Molecular cloning26Nucleic acid purification26PCR and amplification26Protein biochemistry26Proteomics26Research sourcing and study design26
cold chainbiosafetyenquiryglossarytroubleshootingcloningmicrobiologycontaminationcontrolsautoclaveexpressionaseptic techniqueplatestransformationcontainmentenzymesantibioticscolonies
26 articles
microbiology
What blue and white colonies can and cannot mean
Blue and white colonies report alpha-complementation, which is a screen. A white colony still needs a digest or a sequence before anyone calls the insert
8 October 2026 · 9 min read