Abstract—Escherichia coli is a widely studied species of bacteria that has been known to exhibit antibiotic resistance, an up and coming issue of the 21st century. Plasmids, or circular DNA, are one method that such bacteria are able to confer resistance. Through the generation of growth curves and the completion of a disc diffusion assay, this study aims to analyze both growth and resistance characteristics of an E. coli strain containing the pGLO plasmid. These methods proved little difference between the rate of growth for wild type and transformed E. coli (containing the pGLO plasmid). In terms of conferred resistance, however, it is shown that the transformed E. coli results in greater susceptibility against Tetracycline, and diminished susceptibility towards Ampicillin (relative to the wild type E. coli). These findings are as expected and confirm that future studies should focus on the interactions between various antibiotics (so as to decrease interference). 
 

Keywords—E. coli, plasmid, antibiotic resistance, antibiotic susceptibility, bacterial transformation, microbiology

Cite: Lili Bettencourt, "Antibiotic Resistance in Escherichia Coli: A Comparative Study of Antibiotic Susceptibility with and without Ampicillin Resistance Gene," International Journal of Pharma Medicine and Biological Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 56-60, 2024.

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