Biotechnology Flashcards
Biotechnology
The application of biological knowledge to the production of organisms (or their products) useful to humankind.
Artificial Selection
The breeding of plants and animals to produce desirable traits.
Cloning
The process of producing genetically identical individuals or the duplication of any kind of biological material.
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
A laboratory technique for creating an ovum within a donor nucleus from a somatic cell.
Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)
An organism whose genetic material has been altered using recombinant DNA technology.
Transgenic Organism
An organism whose genome has been altered using genetic material from another species or breed.
Restriction Enzyme (Nuclease)
An enzyme that cleaves DNA at or near specific recognition sites.
DNA Scissors
Restriction enzymes that cut DNA into fragments.
Sticky Ends
Fragments of unpaired DNA bases formed when particular base sequences are cut asymmetrically.
DNA Ligase
A specific type of enzyme that facilitates the joining of DNA strands together.
Reverse Transcriptase
A DNA polymerase enzyme that catalyses the process of reverse transcription- the use of an RNA molecule as a template for the synthesis of a complementary DNA strand.
Reverse Transcription
The formation of DNA from an RNA template.
DNA Polymerase
A type of enzyme that is responsible for assembling nucleotides to form new copies of DNA.
Recombinant DNA (= Genetic Engineering)
The deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism, or production of a new organism, by inserting or deleting genes into the DNA.
Plasmid
A small DNA molecule that is physically separated from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently within a bacterial cell.
Vector
A DNA molecule used in the transfer of foreign genetic material into another cell, where it can be replicated and/or expressed.
Gene Cloning
Production of identical copies of a gene.
regulator Gene
A non-coding segment of DNA that produces transcription factors for gene expression.
Gene Therapy
The introduction of normal genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones in order to correct genetic disorders.
Somatic Gene Therapy
Replacement of defective genes in targeted cells that are affected by a genetic disease.
Germ Cell Gene Therapy
Replacement of a defective gene with a normal gene in a reproductive cell (egg or sperm), allowing normal development of the embryo and preventing the disease variant from being passed down.
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
Technique that permits the amplification of any short sequence of DNA.
Thermophile
A microorganism that can tolerate temperatures higher than 45 degrees celsius.
Gel Electrophoresis
A laboratory method for separating mixtures of DNA, RNA or proteins according to molecular size.
Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLP’s)
Different length fragments of DNA that result from the single nucleotide repeats.
DNA Profiling (Fingerprinting)
A technique used to identify (as for forensic purposes) he characteristics of an individual’s DNA by extracting and identifying the base-pair pattern of their DNA.
DNA-Hybridisation
A technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between DNA sequences of different individuals.
Bioinformatics
Biological studies that use computer programming to assist with the collection, classification, storage and analysis of biochemical and biological information.
BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool)
A computer program that compares unknown DNA or protein sequences with those of known sequences.
