Biotechnology Flashcards
What is biotechnology?
the manipulation of organisms or their components to make useful products for our benefit
Outline the basic biotechnology process.
Identify and amplify gene of interest, get it into a useful form, insert into bacterium and then check that the gene has been successfully inserted
What is a genome?
the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism
How big is the human genome?
3 x 10^9 bp
How is DNA isolated in microbes?
heat or alkaline lysis
How do you isolate DNA in higher organisms?
by the mechanical disruption of cells, or by the extraction of DNA with salt, buffer and detergent.
How can one gene be found from the whole genome?
By PCR
What is the reason for using PCR?
need to be able to isolate and amplify only the pieces of DNA that are of interest
