Ch. 12 - vocab

Genetically modified organism

a plant, animal or microbe in which one or more changes have been made to the genome

transformation

a process by which foreign genetic material is taken up by a cell

Biotechnology

multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms

Recombinant DNA

an artificially made DNA strand that is formed by the combination of two or more gene sequences

Genetic engineering

Manipulation of an organism's genes by introducing, eliminating or rearranging specific genes using the methods of modern molecular biology

Plasmid

small circular DNA molecule found in bacteria and some other microscopic organisms

Vector

vector is any particle used as a vehicle to artificially carry a foreign nucleic sequence – usually DNA – into another cell

DNA ligase

an enzyme that joins DNA strands through the formation of phosphodiester bonds in a process called DNA ligation

Gene cloning

a common practice in molecular biology labs that is used by researchers to create copies of a particular gene for downstream applications

Restriction enzyme

a protein isolated from bacteria that cleaves DNA sequences at sequence-specific sites, producing DNA fragments with a known sequence at each end

Restriction site

a sequence of approximately 6–8 base pairs of DNA that binds to a given restriction enzyme

Restriction fragments

DNA fragment resulting from the cutting of a DNA strand by a restriction enzyme

Sticky end

a single-stranded end of DNA or RNA having a nucleotide base sequence complementary to that of another strand, enabling the two strands to be connected by base pairing

Transgenic organism

an organism or cell whose genome has been altered by the introduction of one or more foreign DNA sequences from another species by artificial means

Polymerase chain reaction

laboratory method used to make many copies of a specific piece of DNA from a sample that contains very tiny amounts of that DNA

primer

short single-stranded nucleic acid used by all living organisms in the initiation of DNA synthesis

Gel electrophoresis

DNA samples are loaded into wells (indentations) at one end of a gel, and an electric current is applied to pull them through the gel. DNA fragments are negatively charged, so they move towards the positive electrode.

Genomics

a field of biology focused on studying all the DNA of an organism

Human Genome Project

n international scientific research projects with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint