Biology, Eighth Edition (Raven)

Chapter 17: Biotechnology

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the importance of plasmids and viruses to genetic engineering.
• Know the natural function of restriction endonucleases and how a normal bacterial cell protects its DNA from their activity.
• Understand how “sticky ends” are formed and their importance to gene technology.
• Describe how a chimeric genome is constructed.
• Explain the four steps of genetic engineering experiments.
• Distinguish between the techniques of selection and screening of clones.
• Explain how to screen for clones that contain a desired gene fragment.
• Understand the value of and the processes involved with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• Describe techniques used to characterize DNA.
• Discuss the different applications of gene technology.