This activity simulates a bacterial mutagenesis lab. The user can select the UV irradiation time and then plate the bacterial suspension on a control plate and a plate that includes an antibiotic in the growth medium. The control plate will indicate the amount of bacteria that survived the UV exposure. The antibiotic plate will produce data indicative of the amount of bacteria that have mutations resulting in resistance to the antibiotic.

 

For more information about the effects of UV exposure and UV induced mutations, see the mutation simulation blog post. The resources page includes a worksheet that can be used as a virtual lab for this simulation. There is also a Google doc format available.