Introduction

Biotechnology is the use of cells or cell components to make a product.

Recombinant DNA is DNA that contains genes from two (or more) different sources.

This occurs naturally in bacteria as a result of transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Recombinant DNA can be made artificially in the laboratory; this is technically recombinant DNA technology.

Genetic engineering is actually inserting foreign genes into cells

Cloning is putting foreign DNA into bacteria and allowing the bacteria to reproduce. The resulting clones (offspring) will all carry copies of the foreign DNA.

Making recombinant DNA and cloning is done to:

• Alter the phenotype of an organism.

• Make the products coded for by the DNA.

• Study the DNA (sequence, fingerprint, analyze).

Considerations:

• How do we obtain the DNA of interest?
• How do we get DNA from different sources to recombine?
• How do we insert the recombinant DNA into cells?
• How do we identify cells that have the recombinant DNA?
• If we want a recombinant gene to be expressed, what kind of cells should we use?  Does it matter?