Biotechnology is defined as the modification of organisms or parts of organism to produce a useful product. One use of biotechnology is recombinant DNA. This is when a segment of DNA is transferred to another area of the DNA, to a different chromosome or to a different organism. This can happen naturally through crossing over or can be artificially done with restriction enzymes. The fragments made when restriction enzymes cut the DNA can be copied in a process called DNA cloning.
DNA cloning begins by locating and cutting the DNA with the gene to be copied and the DNA of a cloning vector (often a plasmid). A cloning vector is responsible for transferring DNA between cells. Both are cut with the same restriction enzyme which results in them having the same sticky ends. DNA ligase then combines the two fragments. The vector will then be placed into the host cell in a process called transformation.
Source: Holtzclaw, Fred, and Theresa Holtzclaw. AP Test Prep Series. San Francisco: Pearson Education Inc., 2013. Print. PACK, P. (2013). AP BIOLOGY. (4TH ED., PP. 73-81). BOSTON: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT.
