Flashcards for Exam 2
starting with "recombinant DNA technology"
What is Plasmid DNA
Small circular pieces of self-replicating DNA found primarily in bacteria.
What is Recombinant Plasmid DNA
A type of plasmid DNA that has been artificially altered to include DNA from another source (such as a gene of interest).
Plasmid traits
- Considered extrachromosomal
- Approx 1 to4 kilobases.
What are vectors
Pieces of DNA that can accept, carry, and replicate other pieces of DNA
What is Calcium Chloride Transformation of Bacterial Cells
a method used to introduce foreign DNA into bacterial cells.
- “inefficient process”
Process of CaCl2 Transformation
- bacterial cells are immersed into a cold CaCl2 solution for 30 minutes.
- plasmid DNA is added, and heat ( 30 secs at 42 C) shock temporarily opens the membrane, allowing DNA to enter.
- plasmid DNA enters bacterial cells and is replicated and expressed in their genes.
What is Electroporation
applying a brief pulse of high voltage electricity to create tiny holes in the bacteria cell wall to allow DNA to enter.
What are the advantages of Electroporation
- rapid and more efficient
- require fewer cells
With reference to recombinant bacteria, what is “selection”
Selection is the process of identifying recombinant bacteria while preventing the growth of non-transformed ones (contain plasmid without foreign DNA)
What is Antibiotic Selection
a method used to identify bacteria that have successfully taken up a plasmid containing a gene for antibiotic resistance
- cannot distinguish between bacteria that have taken up the desired recombinant plasmid and bacteria that have taken up a plasmid that has recircularized without the successfully taking it in.
What is Blue-White Selection
a technique used to identify recombinant bacteria. Bacteria with plasmids containing the lacZ gene can hydrolize X-gal, turning blue. If foreign DNA is inserted into the plasmid, the lacZ gene is disrupted, and these bacteria remain white.
What and when were the first recombinant human proteins marketed
Insulin in 1982 and Growth Hormone in 1985
Technique for insulin
inserting the cloned human insulin cDNA sequence into a plasmid. The plasmid is then introduced into bacterial cells, which are used to synthesize the insulin protein encoded by the cloned gene.
What was the source of growth hormone prior to recombinant technology
human cadavers
Practical Features of DNA Cloning Vector
- Size: Small enough to be separated from the host’s chromosomal DNA.
- Origin of replication (ori): Starting point of DNA replication, allows plasmid to replicate independently.
- Copy number: plasmids per cell; usually low, but have high copy number.
- Multiple cloning site (MCS): Contains recognition sites for several restriction enzymes where DNA inserts are cloned.
- Selectable marker genes: Allow selection of transformed colonies.
- RNA polymerase promoter sequences: Enable transcription in vitro and in vivo.
Why cant you use human insulin genomic DNA for a cloning project
genomic DNA contains introns (non-coding regions), which bacteria cannot process.
What are DNA Libraries
collections of DNA fragments that represent the complete genome of an organism. “held” in plasmid vectors within host bacteria (ex. E. coli)
What are the two types of libraries
- Genomic DNA Libraries
- Complementary DNA libraries cDNA
Genomic libraries:
- Isolate chromosomal DNA from tissue of interest and digest with a restriction enzyme to produce fragments.
- Digest the vector with the same enzyme for compatible sticky ends.
- Use DNA ligase to ligate genomic DNA fragments with plasmids or adapters/linkers.
Disadvantages of Genomic Libraries
- Inclusion of Introns: Both introns and exons are cloned; most genomic DNA in eukaryotes is introns, resulting in a library rich in non-coding DNA.
- Search Difficulty: Large genomes make finding the gene of interest challenging and time-consuming.
- Gene Expression Info: Does not provide data on levels of gene expression.
Making complementary DNA from mRNA
- Extract mRNA from tissue of interest
- Use reverse transcriptase to create double-stranded DNA from mRNA.
- Add short linker DNA sequences with restriction sites to cDNA ends.
- Cut with a restriction enzyme and ligate with a cut vector to create recombinant vectors.
- Transform bacteria with recombinant vectors.
Advantages of cDNA Libraries
- Represents actively expressed genes from the tissue from which mRNA was isolated.
- Does not include introns.
- Can isolate genes expressed under specific conditions in a tissue.
Disadvantages of cDNA Libraries
Difficult to create if the source tissue lacks abundant mRNA.
Library Screening - Process of Colony Hybridization
- Grow bacteria with recombinant DNA on an agar plate.
- Place a nylon or nitrocellulose filter over the plate.
- Treat the filter with an alkaline solution to lyse bacteria and denature DNA; expose to UV light.
- Denatured DNA binds to the filter as single-stranded DNA.
- Incubate the filter with a probe tagged with a radioactive nucleotide or fluorescent dye.
- Probe binds to complementary sequences on the filter (hybridization).
- Wash the filter to remove excess unbound probe.
- Expose the filter to X-ray film or a digital camera to detect the fluorescent probe.
- Compare the film or image to the original agar plate to identify colonies with the gene of interest.