Is the plasmid pGLO capable of conjugation?
I’m virtually certain it cannot. First, E. coli can only initiate conjugation if it contains a conjugative plasmid such as the F plasmid, aka F factor. Most likely, any E. coli strain you would be working with in the lab will not contain a conjugative plasmid unless you purposely pick one that does. If you know the genotype of the strain your using, check to see if it includes either F or F’ (the latter means F is integrated into the chromosome). If not, it’s very unlikely to be conjugative. Second, even if the strain itself can initiate conjugation, pGLO (aka pGFPuv) would only be transferred if it contain a particular sequence called bom (for basis of mobilization). I can’t say for certain that it doesn’t, but it wasn’t shown on the map I found. Also, bom is not usually present in most vectors these days (except when there’s a reason to include it). HTH.
