1/22-1/28 Week 3: Tetracycline Efflux Pump with D. Aquaticus
Introduction What are efflux pumps? According to the National Institutes of Health , efflux pumps are basically "bacterial transport proteins which are involved in extrusion of substrates from the cellular interior to the external enviroment" (Sharma, 2019. p 4). This week in lab, my group and I did a quick and simple experiment with tetracycline and D.aquaticus. Basically, D. aquaticus contains both tetA, which codes for the efflux pump, and tetR , which codes for the regulator of the pump. As for tetracycline, we know that in order for tetracycline to work with bacteria, it has interfere with protein synthesis to destroy the bacterial cells' membrane and stop the bacterial growth. Our question is, if D.aquaticus contain both tetA and tetR that can possibly pump a certain amount of tetracycline out of the cell's membrane, then does increasing the dosage allow tetracycline to reach the protein easier? Procedure In order for us to start...