DNA Technology Ch.11

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and definitions related to DNA technology.

DNA technology

Manipulating DNA for practical purposes

Transgenic organism

An individual that receives recombinant DNA—genetic material that scientists have spliced together from multiple sources.

Plasmid

A small circle of double-stranded DNA that is separate from chromosomes.

Restriction enzymes

Enzymes used to cut the source DNA and stick it together with the plasmid.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Technique that rapidly produces millions of copies of a selected DNA sequence in a test tube.

Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)

Short DNA sequences from the noncoding regions of DNA; People within a population have different numbers of these repeats.

Stem cells

Cells that are unspecialized and retain the ability to differentiate into different types of cells.

Embryonic stem cells

Stem cells that come from very early embryos and can give rise to all cell types in the body.

Adult stem cells

Stem cells that come from adult tissues and can give rise to many (but not all) cell types in the body.

Cloning

Creating identical copies of an organism; asexual reproduction

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Used to clone animals; The nucleus from an adult cell is used to create the clone, whose DNA is identical to the donor.

DNA probe

Can be used to test whether a patient inherited a specific allele.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)

Used to help reduce the odds of having a child with a genetic disease; Sperm fertilizes eggs in a laboratory dish, and DNA is extracted from one cell of each developing embryo and amplified by PCR.

Gene therapy

Supplementing a faulty gene with a normal, healthy version.

CRISPR-Cas9

Uses guide RNA to find the gene they want to edit and an enzyme that cuts out the DNA and replaces it with a different sequence.