Biotechnology Flashcards
What is recombinant DNA?
DNA that is substituted from another strand of DNA into another
How can scientists use plasmids and bacteria to clone (make many identical copies of) a specific gene?
- When a gene in a plasmid in bacteria is changed, bacteria can make multiple copies of that gene fast, since bacteria have short lifespans
- Scientists take these plasmids and use enzymes to cut them apart so they can get a specific part of the plasmid
Why might biologists want to clone a gene? Of what use is this technology/technique? How could you get a gene from one organism into another?
- Say there is a desirable gene that one animal has but the other doesn’t, and it would be beneficial for that animal to have it
- Example (Cloning GFP from Jellyfish and moving it to other animals), or like moving the tastier apple gene to other apples
- You would first get a DNA sample, copy it with DNA Polymerase and other necessary enzymes, then by manipulating restriction enzymes, cut out the gene that you want
- Then you can copy that cut out gene
- A gene can be cloned so gel electrophoresis can be performed better
How is DNA technology useful in producing therapeutic hormones?
- You can take a gene out of the cell that creates the hormone and put it into a cell that doesn’t already make that hormone
How is DNA technology useful in diagnosing and treating disease?
You can clone a gene that deals with bacteria and put it into a vaccine
How is DNA technology useful in developing vaccines?
You can clone a gene that deals with bacteria and put it into a vaccine
How is DNA technology useful in developing genetically modified (GMO) crops & livestock?
You can make crops and livestock more tasty, more fatty, more resistant to some virus/diseases, perhaps you could make some crops more durable and resistant… a lot of possibilities
When designing a plasmid with a gene of interest, what types of enzymes do biologists use to cut DNA at specific sequences?
Restriction enzymes
Where do restriction enzymes come from? Why might one enzyme be used versus another? How do they work?
Come from bacterial cells to chop up foreign DNA, each one cuts at different restriction sites
What is a restriction site and why are they palindromes?
- They are where restriction enzymes recognize certain patterns
- They are palindromes so they can be read in the 5-3 direction on either strand and be the same
What enzyme can biologists use to “paste” together DNA?
Ligase
How do you use a micropipette? (first and second stop, changing tips, etc)
- When you hold a micropipette you put your thumb over the top of it, where there is a plunger and another button (which releases the tip)
- The plunger has two stops, the first one extrudes all of the liquid from the tip, and the second stop shoots a burst of air through the tip which pushes the drop of liquid off of the end of the tip
How do you prevent cross-contamination when micropipetting small amounts of liquid?
You switch the tips in between using the micropipette to pipette liquids
What is gel electrophoresis and what is this technique used for? How does it work?
- After micropipetting the solution into the wells of a gel slab, you turn something on that makes electricity flow through the gel (positive and negative charges coming from separate directions)
- One side of the container the gel is in has a positive charge, and the other is negatively charged, so the DNA will slowly move toward the positive end of the container (bigger pieces move less)
How do you set up a gel electrophoresis experiment to get viable results?
What are the required components needed to analyze your results? (ex: control DNA, DNA ladder, loading dye, semilog graph paper) What is an appropriate control when running a restriction digest on a gel?
-You need DNA ladder, DNA, dye, agarose gel, a brine solution, electricity and two diodes, and a UV light
