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A Guide to Yeast Transformation and Cloning in the Lab

Written by Phil Meagher | Nov 19, 2013 5:00:00 AM

Thank you for checking out our “30 days of Science Education” series. Use Science Education videos to introduce undergraduates to the lab.

As we've recently discussedSaccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast, is a common and readily available simple eukaryotic model organism used in the study of genetics and cell biology that can give insights into human cellular processes.

Click the above image to watch "Yeast transformation and cloning."

In this video, selected from our Science Education database, we introduce yeast transformation — which occurs when a cell uptakes foreign DNA for molecular cloning purposes.

In addition to walking you through a step-by-step transformation procedure using yeast, this video introduces the different types of yeast plasmids, explains how to prepare these cells for transformation and explores some of the common applications of this technique in the lab.

(3:38) Yeast cells must be prepared by first picking a colony from an agar plate and amplifying the colony in yeast extract peptone dextrose medium, abbreviated YPD - a complete medium for yeast growth.

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