Genetic Engineering

1. genetic engineer- ing 2. recombinant DNA A technology that includes the process of manipulating or altering the genetic material of a cell DNA sequence produced by combining DNA from different sources 3. transgenic organism whose genome has been altered to contain one or more genes from another organism or species 4. plasmid a small, circular strand of DNA in a bacterium (good for inserting DNA sequences) 5. genetically mod- ified organism (GMO) 6. an organism whose genetic material has been altered through some genetic engineering technology/technique nuclear transfer cloning Nucleus removed from one organism and placed into an empty egg to create clone 7. gene splicing a laboratory method of cutting apart and recombining genes to produce recombinant DNA 8. Palindromic DNA sequence Both strands of DNA have the same sequence reading 5' to 3' - sites used for restriction enzymes 9. gene therapy the use of genetic engineering to change the genes within an individual's cells and tissues for the purpose of treating a disease 10. restriction en- zymes Enzyme that cuts DNA at a specific sequence of nu- cleotides 11. gel electrophore- sis The separation of nucleic acids or proteins, on the basis of their size and electrical charge, by measuring their rate of movement through an electrical field in a gel. 12. gene A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait 13. polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique that allows molecular biologists to make many copies of a particular DNA segment 14. ligase An enzyme that connects two fragments of DNA to make a single fragment 15. reverse tran- scriptase a polymerase that catalyzes the formation of DNA using RNA as a template 16. cDNA Complementary DNA. DNA produced synthetically by re- verse transcribing mRNA. Because of eukaryotic mRNA splicing, cDNA contains no introns. 17. Taq polymerase A DNA synthesis enzyme that can withstand the high temperatures of PCR