microbiology
Antibiotic selection and blue-white screening
How antibiotic plates keep a plasmid in a cloning strain, and why a white colony on X-gal is a candidate rather than proof of the insert.
8 October 2026 · 9 min read
Tag
screening
Articles tagged screening. Tags group methods across clusters so a technique can be found from more than one route.
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 chainbiosafetycrisprspecificationsequencingproteomicsenquiryglossarytroubleshootingcloningmicrobiologybuffersfreezerspipettingcalibrationelisacell cultureglassware
3 articles
molecular cloning
Colony PCR versus diagnostic digest
When to triage colonies by PCR and when a miniprep digest is worth it, including false positives from agar DNA, orientation, and why neither is a sequence.
8 October 2026 · 8 min read
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