The research in my laboratory involves our efforts to identify bacterial proteins that are necessary for maintenance of DNA in the cells that arise from new divisions. We have identified a number of bacterial mutants that cannot effectively place the F plasmid at a proper site in the bacterial cell and hence it is lost when these bacteria divide. We are currently trying to “rescue” these mutants by inserting cloned genes from wild type bacteria. We will then identify the genes that are on the cloned plasmids that do the rescuing.