You've performed a bacterial conjugation experiment. You begin with an E. coli strain with the 'F' factor that you have isolated. This 'donor' strain cannot grow in the presence of ampicillin. You mix this strain with an "acceptor" strain (amp^s) that is auxotrophic for a variety of markers.

1. How will you separate your acceptor strain from the initial donor strain? What could you add to the media?
- Add ampicillin to the media.

2. You then isolate five new strains after conjugation. Below are the times at which you plated the conjugation experiment onto selective media. Provide a list of the media formulations you used in the petri dishes.

To separate acceptor from donor strain, add ampicillin. Petri dish media formulations: ampicillin for selection, color-changing substance for plasmid differentiation.

Explanation:

To separate the acceptor strain from the initial donor strain, you can add ampicillin to the media. Acceptor strains that are auxotrophic will not grow in the presence of ampicillin, allowing you to select for donor strains that have successfully conjugated with the acceptor strain.

The media formulations used in the petri dishes after the conjugation experiment could include one with ampicillin to select for transformed cells, and another with a color-changing substance to distinguish between nonrecombinant plasmids and recombinant plasmids.