So how does a scientist work with DNA? It always starts with the sequence. Once the sequence is known, so much more can be done. Specific regions can be isolated, cloned, amplified, and then used to help us.

Biotechnology Methods

Biotechnology is the use of technology to change the genetic makeup of living things for human purposes. Generally, the purpose of biotechnology is to create organisms that are useful to humans or to cure genetic disorders. For example, biotechnology may be used to create crops that resist insect pests or yield more food, or to create new treatments for human diseases.

Biotechnology uses a variety of techniques to achieve its aims. Two commonly used techniques are gene cloning and the polymerase chain reaction.

Gene Cloning

Gene cloning is the process of isolating and making copies of a gene. This is useful for many purposes. For example, gene cloning might be used to isolate and make copies of a normal gene for gene therapy. Gene cloning involves four steps: isolation, ligation, transformation, and selection.

In isolation, an enzyme (called a restriction enzyme) is used to break DNA at a specific base sequence. This is done to isolate a gene.
During ligation, the enzyme DNA ligase combines the isolated gene with plasmid DNA from bacteria. (A plasmid is circular DNA that is not part of a chromosome and can replicate independently.)
In transformation, the recombinant DNA is inserted into a living cell, usually a bacterial cell. Changing an organism in this way is also called genetic engineering.
Selection involves growing transformed bacteria to make sure they have the recombinant DNA. This is a necessary step because transformation is not always successful. Only bacteria that contain the recombinant DNA are selected for further use.

Genetic Engineering (Video) Genetic Engineering

Summary

Biotechnology is the use of technology to change the genetic makeup of living things for human purposes.
Gene cloning is the process of isolating and making copies of a DNA segment such as a gene.

Review

Define biotechnology.
What is recombinant DNA?
Identify the steps of gene cloning.

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