X-gal
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X-gal
X-gal (also abbreviated BCIG for 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β--galactopyranoside) is an organic compound consisting of galactose linked to a substituted indole. The compound was synthesized by Jerome Horwitz and collaborators in 1964. The formal chemical name is often shortened to less accurate but also less cumbersome phrases such as bromochloroindoxyl galactoside. The X from indoxyl may be the source of the X in the X-gal contraction. X-gal is often used in molecular biology to test for the presence of an enzyme, β-galactosidase, in the place of its usual target, a β-galactoside. It is also used to detect activity of this enzyme in histochemistry and bacteriology. X-gal is one of many indoxyl glycosides and esters that yield insoluble blue compounds similar to indigo dye as a result of enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis. Uses X-gal is an analog of lactose, and therefore may be hydrolyzed by the β-galactosidase enzyme which cleaves the β-glycosidic bond in -lactose. X-gal, when clea ...
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X-Gal Reaction
X-gal (also abbreviated BCIG for 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β--galactopyranoside) is an organic compound consisting of galactose linked to a substituted indole. The compound was synthesized by Jerome Horwitz and collaborators in 1964. The formal chemical name is often shortened to less accurate but also less cumbersome phrases such as bromochloroindoxyl galactoside. The X from indoxyl may be the source of the X in the X-gal contraction. X-gal is often used in molecular biology to test for the presence of an enzyme, β-galactosidase, in the place of its usual target, a β-galactoside. It is also used to detect activity of this enzyme in histochemistry and bacteriology. X-gal is one of many indoxyl glycosides and esters that yield insoluble blue compounds similar to indigo dye as a result of enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis. Uses X-gal is an analog of lactose, and therefore may be hydrolyzed by the β-galactosidase enzyme which cleaves the β-glycosidic bond in -lactose. X-gal, when clea ...
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LacZ
The ''lactose'' operon (''lac'' operon) is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in ''E. coli'' and many other enteric bacteria. Although glucose is the preferred carbon source for most bacteria, the ''lac'' operon allows for the effective digestion of lactose when glucose is not available through the activity of beta-galactosidase. Gene regulation of the ''lac'' operon was the first genetic regulatory mechanism to be understood clearly, so it has become a foremost example of prokaryotic gene regulation. It is often discussed in introductory molecular and cellular biology classes for this reason. This lactose metabolism system was used by François Jacob and Jacques Monod to determine how a biological cell knows which enzyme to synthesize. Their work on the ''lac'' operon won them the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1965. Bacterial operons are polycistronic transcripts that are able to produce multiple proteins from one mRNA transcript. In this case, when lac ...
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PUC19
pUC19 is one of a series of plasmid cloning vectors created by Joachim Messing and co-workers. The designation "pUC" is derived from the classical "p" prefix (denoting "plasmid") and the abbreviation for the University of California, where early work on the plasmid series had been conducted. It is a circular double stranded DNA and has 2686 base pairs. pUC19 is one of the most widely used vector molecules as the recombinants, or the cells into which foreign DNA has been introduced, can be easily distinguished from the non-recombinants based on color differences of colonies on growth media. pUC18 is similar to pUC19, but the MCS region is reversed. Components Notably, it has an N-terminal fragment of β-galactosidase (''lacZ'') gene of ''E. coli''. The multiple cloning site (MCS) region is split into codons 6-7 of the lacZ gene, providing for many restriction endonucleases restriction sites. In addition to β-galactosidase, pUC19 also encodes for an ampicillin resistance gene (a ...
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Beta-galactosidase
β-Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23, lactase, beta-gal or β-gal; systematic name β-D-galactoside galactohydrolase), is a glycoside hydrolase enzyme that catalyzes hydrolysis of terminal non-reducing β-D-galactose residues in β-D-galactosides. β-Galactosides include carbohydrates containing galactose where the glycosidic bond lies above the galactose molecule. Substrates of different β-galactosidases include ganglioside GM1, lactosylceramides, lactose, and various glycoproteins. Function β-Galactosidase is an exoglycosidase which hydrolyzes the β-glycosidic bond formed between a galactose and its organic moiety. It may also cleave fucosides and arabinosides but with much lower efficiency. It is an essential enzyme in the human body. Deficiencies in the protein can result in galactosialidosis or Morquio B syndrome. In '' E. coli'', the ''lacZ'' gene is the structural gene for β-galactosidase; which is present as part of the inducible system ''lac'' operon which is activ ...
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Reporter Gene
In molecular biology, a reporter gene (often simply reporter) is a gene that researchers attach to a regulatory sequence of another gene of interest in bacteria, cell culture, animals or plants. Such genes are called reporters because the characteristics they confer on organisms expressing them are easily identified and measured, or because they are selectable markers. Reporter genes are often used as an indication of whether a certain gene has been taken up by or expressed in the cell or organism population. Common reporter genes To introduce a reporter gene into an organism, scientists place the reporter gene and the gene of interest in the same DNA construct to be inserted into the cell or organism. For bacteria or prokaryotic cells in culture, this is usually in the form of a circular DNA molecule called a plasmid. For viruses, this is known as a viral vector. It is important to use a reporter gene that is not natively expressed in the cell or organism under study, since the ...
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Jerome Horwitz
Jerome Phillip Horwitz (January 16, 1919 – September 6, 2012) was an American scientist; his affiliations included the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Michigan Cancer Foundation. Background Horwitz was a Jewish Detroit native and 1937 graduate of Central High School. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the University of Detroit; his doctorate in chemistry came from the University of Michigan. He completed his post-doctoral training at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Clinical breakthroughs In 1964, while conducting research for the Michigan Cancer Foundation, Horwitz synthesized a compound that was to become known as zidovudine (AZT) - an antiviral drug used to treat HIV patients; Zidovudine was initially developed as a treatment for cancer. Horwitz was also first to synthesize stavudine (d4T) and zalcitabine (ddC) - two other reverse-transcriptase inhibito ...
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X-Gluc
X-Gluc is a chemical compound with the molecular formula C14H13BrClNO7. It is used as a reagent to detect β-glucuronidase, an enzyme produced by the ''E. coli'' bacterium. It is used to detect ''E. coli'' contamination in food, water and the urinary tract. In addition, it is widely used in molecular biology experiments to mark and select the expression of target genes (GUS reporter system). It is often preferred to other detection methods because it is fast (24-hour testing), relatively accurate ( <1% false negatives and <5% false positives ) and the result is easy to observe and interpret. The reagent is safe to transport and easy to store.


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Organic Compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The study of the properties, reactions, and syntheses of organic compounds comprise the discipline known as organic chemistry. For historical reasons, a few classes of carbon-containing compounds (e.g., carbonate salts and cyanide salts), along with a few other exceptions (e.g., carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide), are not classified as organic compounds and are considered inorganic. Other than those just named, little consensus exists among chemists on precisely which carbon-containing compounds are excluded, making any rigorous definition of an organic compound elusive. Although organic compounds make up only a small percentage of Earth's crust, they are of central importance because all known life is based on organic compounds. Living t ...
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Indoles
Indole is an aromatic heterocyclic organic compound with the formula C8 H7 N. It has a bicyclic structure, consisting of a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered pyrrole ring. Indole is widely distributed in the natural environment and can be produced by a variety of bacteria. As an intercellular signal molecule, indole regulates various aspects of bacterial physiology, including spore formation, plasmid stability, resistance to drugs, biofilm formation, and virulence. The amino acid tryptophan is an indole derivative and the precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin. General properties and occurrence Indole is a solid at room temperature. It occurs naturally in human feces and has an intense fecal odor. At very low concentrations, however, it has a flowery smell, and is a constituent of many perfumes. It also occurs in coal tar. The corresponding substituent is called indolyl. Indole undergoes electrophilic substitution, mainly at position 3 (see diagram i ...
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Galactosides
A galactoside is a glycoside containing galactose. The H of the OH group on carbon-1 of galactose is replaced by an organic moiety. Depending on whether the glycosidic bond lies "above" or "below" the plane of the galactose molecule, galactosides are classified as α-galactosides or β-galactosides. A β-galactoside is a type of galactoside in which the glycosidic bond lies above the plane of the galactose Galactose (, '' galacto-'' + ''-ose'', "milk sugar"), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epimer of glucose. A galactose molecu ... residue. The most commonly recognized and used β-galactoside in biochemistry is lactose. However, other chemicals, such as ONPG, are known, but these are typically synthesized for biochemical assays. Galactosides play significant roles in metabolic processes of many organisms and are hydrolyzed by a class of enzymes called g ...
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Two-hybrid Analysis
Two-hybrid screening (originally known as yeast two-hybrid system or Y2H) is a molecular biology technique used to discover protein–protein interactions (PPIs) and protein–DNA interactions by testing for physical interactions (such as binding) between two proteins or a single protein and a DNA molecule, respectively. The premise behind the test is the activation of downstream reporter gene(s) by the binding of a transcription factor onto an upstream activating sequence (UAS). For two-hybrid screening, the transcription factor is split into two separate fragments, called the DNA-binding domain (DBD or often also abbreviated as BD) and activating domain (AD). The BD is the domain responsible for binding to the UAS and the AD is the domain responsible for the activation of transcription. The Y2H is thus a protein-fragment complementation assay. History Pioneered by Stanley Fields and Ok-Kyu Song in 1989, the technique was originally designed to detect protein–protein ...
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