RECOMBINATION AND TRANSFORMATION

Question 1

Antibiotic

Answer 1

Medications used to kill bacteria or slow their growth.

Question 2

Antibiotic resistance gene

Answer 2

Gene which confers antibiotic

resistance.

Question 3

Bacterial transformation

Answer 3

The process by which bacteria take up foreign DNA from their environment. Scientists use this process to introduce recombinant plasmids into bacteria.

Question 4

Blunt end

Answer 4

The result of a straight cut across the double-stranded DNA by an endonuclease resulting in no overhanging nucleotides.

Question 5

Electroporation

Answer 5

A method that involves delivering an electric shock to bacterial membranes to increase their membrane permeability and increase the likelihood of bacterial transformation.

Question 6

Endonuclease

Answer 6

An enzyme that breaks the phosphodiester bond between two nucleotides in a polynucleotide chain.

Question 7

Gene of interest

Answer 7

A gene scientists want to be expressed in recombinant bacteria. This gene often encodes a protein we wish to produce in commercial quantities. Also known as the desired gene.

Question 8

Heat shock

Answer 8

A method that involves rapidly increasing and decreasing the temperature to increase membrane permeability in order to enhance the likelihood of bacterial transformation.

Question 9

Overhanging nucleotides

Answer 9

Unbonded nucleotides on the ends of the DNA strand resulting from a staggered cut.

Question 10

Plasmid

Answer 10

A small, circular loop of DNA separate from the chromosome, typically found in bacteria.

Question 11

Recombinant plasmid

Answer 11

A circular DNA vector that is ligated to incorporate a gene of interest.

Question 12

Reporter gene

Answer 12

Gene with an easily identifiable phenotype that can be used to identify whether a plasmid has taken up the gene of interest.