Penicillin, isolated from a fungus, was the first antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections and is still widely used today. Scientists have genetically engineered bacteria to produce large amounts of penicillin. Describe how scientists would produce a genetically modified bacterium that produces penicillin – 10026

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1. First, restriction enzymes are used to cut out the gene from the fungus and to cut open a plasmid taken from a bacterium. Then, the gene is inserted into the plasmid and joined using ligase. Finally, the recombinant plasmid is put back into the bacteria.

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