If you forgot to add DNA ligase to the ligation mixture in the lab, what could you expect to observe on the AMP-X-gal plate?
a. White colonies only
b. No bacterial growth
c. Blue and white colonies
d. Blue colonies only
Answer- d. Blue colonies only
This is because this procedure is blue-white screen. In this, recombinant bacteria, with the DNA portion of interest inserted in it using vector, are detected along non-recombinant bacteria, using different coloured colonies.
The cells transformed with recombinant DNA form white colonies, while cells with non-recombinant plasmids form blue colonies.
Now, to be able to take up the recombinant DNA, it needs to be ligated into the host genome; in absence of ligase, this won't happen and all the cells will have non-recombinant plasmids only. Hence there will be blue colonies only.
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