modern applications of microbial genetics Flashcards
what is biotechnology
using living systems to benefit humankind, direct alteration of an organisms genetics to achieve desirable traits
what does genetic engineering involve
the use of recombinant dna technology
what is recombinant dna technology
the process where dna sequence is manipulated in vitro creating recombinant dna molecules that have new combinations of genetic material
what is transgenic
when dna is entered into a different host species the host organisms is transgenic
what is an example of transgenic bacteria
insulin from humans being inserted into a plasmid and then into bacteria allowing them to produce and secrete human insulin
how do prokaryotes acquire foreign dna
conjugation
transduction
transformation
what was the first molecular cloning
when cloned genes from the African clawed frog was inserted into bacterial plasmid that was then introduced to e coli
what is molecular cloning
methods to construct recombinant dna and incorporate it into a host organism
what are dna molecules manipulated with in recombinant dna
naturally occurring enzymes derived from bacteria viruses
what makes recombinant dna possible
restriction endonuclease (restriction enzymes)
what are restriction enzymes
bacterial enzymes produced as a protection mechanisms to cut and destroy foreign cytoplasmic dna mostly from bacteriophage infection
how are restriction enzymes used
to cut dna fragments that can be spliced into another dna molecule to form recombinant molecules
what is a recognition site
a specific usually palindromic dna sequence between four to six bace pairs
what is a palindrome
a sequence of letters that reads the same forward as backwards, same sequences in the 5’-3’ to 3’-5’
what does it mean to anneal
form hydrogen bonds between complementary bases at their sitcky ends
what does annealing allow
hybridization of the single strand overhang
why dont blunt ends attach as well as sticky ends
lack of complementary overhangs facilitating the process
what is hybridization
joining together two complementary single strands of dna
how are single strands rejoined
ligation, dna ligase rejoins the two-sugar phosphate backbones through covalent bonding
what are plasmids
small pieces of double stranded dna that replicate independently of the bacterial chromosome
what is a vector
dna molecules that carry dna fragments from one organism to another, usually plasmids
what is a polylinker site
a short sequence containing multiple unique restriction enzyme recognition sites used for inserting dna into the plasmid after restriction digestion of dna and the plasmid
what does having multiple restriction enzymes recognition sites within a polylinker do
makes plasmid vector versatile so it can be used for different cloning experiments with different restriction enzymes
where is the polylinker site found
within the reporter gene
