Talk:Plasmid

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Comments
In our science books it says that the plasmid (DNA) only occurs inthe prokaryote cell. So how would it occur in the eukaryote cell?


 * Propagation of plasmids in eukaryotes particularly the yeasts has been possible for at least 30 years. How do you think studies of chromosome loss are carried out? In fact, eukaryotes can propagate several different plasmids simultaneously and with much greater efficiency than bacteria which has a hard time propagating two different plasmids. Eukaryotic molecular biology almost always involves plasmid manipulation. Please see review by Sherman http://dbb.urmc.rochester.edu/labs/sherman_f/yeast/Cont.html


 * Science books rapidly become out of date as they are unable to update themselves; articles in journals represent the best option for obtaining up to date facts on any given scientific topic. Whilst it is true that plasmids are frequently associated with bacteria, there are several examples of plasmids in fungi and plants. They are often linear, provide no real benefit to the host organism and exist for the "selfish" purposes of their own propagation usually via the host cellular machinery.


 * Yeasts are often used as an alternative to bacteria for the expression of mammalian proteins cloned in recombinant plasmids (YEp vectors).

Despite the fact that textbooks become rapidly outdated, I believe most of this information can be found in recent entry-level college textbooks. Poofyspikes 18:25, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


 * True. Though I'm guessing from the term 'science books' the question asker is probably using using a basic science text, and obviously things get simplified for reasons of both understanding and space

Regarding the 'conformations' section.

I'm not sure the following is true:

The relative electrophoretic mobility (speed) of these DNA conformations in a gel are as follows:
 * Nicked Open Circular (slowest)
 * Linear
 * Supercoiled
 * Supercoiled Denatured
 * Relaxed Circular (fastest)

Is it really the case that the two circular forms, which differ only in a single nick, have the largest difference in migration rate? Somehow I doubt this. Loris 17:30, 19 January 2006 (UTC) i wonder if u can explain more about their maintainence [Stanzin]14:57,31 January 2006

The conformation rate of migration information is almost certainly wrong. Supercoiled plasmids (knotted, more compact circles) should travel faster than relaxed plasmids (which are expanded circles). I have changed the order in the article to reflect this.

Autonomous replication
What do you mean by autonomous replication?


 * This means that they can replicate separately from the chromosome. They do of course use a lot of the cellular machinery to do this, but the point is that they regulate their copy-number independent of the chromosome. Loris 16:27, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Episome
In vertebrate virology, the term episome always refers to non-integrated DNA that is replicated and segregated to daughter cells. For example see Cell (2004) 117:349 PMID: 15109495. Do bacteriologists really use the word episome to refer to integrated DNA? It's puzzling given that the latin roots mean "upon body." Retroid 13:17, 19 May 2006 (UTC)


 * The definition of an episome is an extrachromsomal element that is capable of integration into the host cell chromosome, at least in bacteria. The difference with eukaryotic terminology is puzzling. I shall try and look into it. Blackmetalbaz (talk) 23:04, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to find the definition of an episome, and this article contradicts itself on the subject. The text says they're not integrated, the picture says they are, the caption of the picture says they aren't. Help? 24.82.209.151 (talk) 07:54, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

The two external links for episomes are both broken. Does anyone have any more recent links that would be pertinent? Agathman (talk) 13:47, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

It seems that 'episome' (at least for eukaryotic cells) is a DNA molecule NOT chromasomally integrated, but capable of replication. See Both episomal and integrated forms of human papillomavirus type 16 are involved in invasive cervical cancers or this free-access review Transfer and Expression of Foreign Genes in Mammalian Cells. (talk) 12:37, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Episomes are found in prokaryotes, your article says eukaryotes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.27.221.86 (talk) 11:22, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Color Blind
The diagram here is green and red, which is difficult for some to see. Maybe green could be blue instead?Alex Dodge 03:26, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Just did the first one but then realised that the problem one is probably fig 4? Is that so? David D. (Talk) 03:53, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Cost of commercial preparation
After considerable digging, I found a price for commercial preparation of plasmid DNA (see article). I'm not sure whether a link to a commercial site is appropriate in the article itself, but as documentation, here it is: http://www.natx.com/PlasmidSmPrice.html 67.119.13.131 07:01, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Spamming Wikipedia
Biologicalworld.com has spammed wikipedia like no tomorrow. He is a site of only a few pages and a LOT of adsense. Not much information is given except for "protocols" which are not referenced, and cannot be trusted from a site of that quality.

check: Links from Wikipedia

The following have been cleaned up:


 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmid
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_fluorescent_protein
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology)
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protease
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_enzyme
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petri_dish
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_domain
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypsin
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligonucleotide
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_electron_microscope
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar_plate
 * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_phosphate
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciencetalks (talk • contribs) 02:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciencetalks (talk • contribs) 02:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciencetalks (talk • contribs) 02:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciencetalks (talk • contribs) 02:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sciencetalks (talk • contribs) 02:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Computer programs?
The last I knew Plasmids are not "4-bit computer programs" that are "downloaded" to bacteria, this is deffinatly not true, so I propose that the article should have all mention of a DNA=computer language removed. If I'm mistaken, please tell me so. ace ma&#39;noyanort lu ave matthew (talk) 23:39, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeast Plasmids and TRP1
Consider adding the keyword links to the Yeast Plasmids seccion, and talking about TRP1. EmanCunha 12:10, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Suicide Vectors
Any chance there's someone around that knows exactly how they work, that feel like posting? I got a definition over http://www.everythingbio.com/glos/definition.php?word=plasmid%20suicide%20vector but it's not really useful. --193.136.128.19 (talk) 16:48, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Plasmids in popular culture
Would it be wrong to create a section about the use of Plasmids in Rapture? 131.170.90.4 (talk) 17:45, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
 * How exactly do you mean? Blackmetalbaz (talk) 17:46, 12 August 2010 (UTC)


 * In the video game "Bioshock", the term Plasmid is used to describe discrete genetic enhancements that the player (and enemies) can use. Not much fluff about it, but they might have read what they are before they named them that.  207.159.180.79 (talk) 18:34, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

Plasmids - bacterial antibiotic resistance
I worked too many moons ago with E.coli and looked at antibiotic resistance transfer carried on plasmids. We regarded these as the most important vectors and thus a crucial contributor of horizontal gene transfer of drug resistance. Frequently were demonstrated plasmids that carried multiple resistance which could be readily and at great speed passed between species in a highly "promiscuous" manner. Surely we should carry a discussion of this issue in both "Plasmid" and "HGT" sections. It explains so clearly the danger of hospital and farm based resistances as one such chemical selects for multiple resistance plasmids which are then cross exchanged between multivarious bacterial species present.KrisHemin (talk) 23:57, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Plasmid size
"Plasmid sizes vary from 1 to over 1,000 kbp."

I doubt that there are any plasmids smaller than roughly 500 bp.

Plasmids vary in size; the smallest plasmid is only 846 bp long and contains only one gene.

Markus29 (talk) 13:37, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

inline ref format
I'm assuming this is what was intended, and I think someone reading the article with no knowledge of the underlying wikitext would assume too. I'm guessing that the editor who added he multiple reference didn't know about the "name=" parameter.

And the ref does seem appropriate for the subject matter. It supports the material well.

But I'm not sure that the format is quite right. It would be good for someone with more knowledge of citation formats to check it. Andrewa (talk) 02:20, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

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Species not an applicable concept?
' Plasmids can be transmitted from one bacterium to another (even of another species) ' I don't think this is admissable; the concept of species doesn't really apply to bacteria. Since bacteria reproduce asexually they don't find mates within their own species; all bacteria of a variety are clones.Dean1954 (talk) 12:47, 13 October 2017 (UTC)