Q. 9

[JerryWTu7580]

Just a quick question about cloning. A plasmid doesn't need to incorporate into the bacterium's genome, right? All the plasmids in a bacterium can be replicated separately, so every daughter cell has the plasmids as well, right?

[jellywing_2058]

For background information, a plasmid is a circular piece of DNA that replicates separately from the chromosome in bacteria cells and unicellular eukaryotes. Of course this is more information than you are required to know. To answer your question, since a plasmid is DNA, plasmids must be found in each daughter cell since they are transferred from the mother cell to the daughter cells.

[jvuofm1709]

I completely agree that C is a true statement, but I don't think it can logically answer the question. the question asks "In order for cloning of foreign DNA to take place, bacterial plasmids must:" The question is directed at what "bacterial plasmids" must have or do, not the bacteria itself. Since option C says, "resume their usual life cycle", I think it can be eliminated on the basis that "bacterial plasmids" are not living, they are just polymerized molecules. The bacteria is what must resume its usual life cycle. So, I thought the most logical answer was "B", since it directly applies to the bacterial plasmid. I believe the MOST correct response would have been: be able to be replicated by the bacteria's DNA polymerase machinery, and split into daughter cells. I know the above argument takes a literal translation of "life cycle", but this is biology not the verbal section.

[admin]

Thanks for your opinion! We have edited this question.