Topic 21 - Recombinant DNA Technology

• Recombinant DNA has been combined from two different organisms, resulting in a transgenic or genetically modified organism (GMO).
• A transgenic organism is one that contains DNA from two different organisms.
• There are five different stages to making a protein using DNA technology. These include isolation of the desired gene, insertion of the gene into a vector, transformation, identification of transgenic organisms, growth/cloning of transgenic organisms.
• There are three different methods used to produce DNA fragments : converting mRNA to CDNA with the reverse transcriptase enzyme, using restriction endonucleases to cut fragments containing the desired gene from DNA, and creating the gene in a gene machine.
• Retroviruses are viruses that are able to replicate inside a host cell and use a reverse transcriptase enzyme to convert their RNA into DNA.