Chapter 20 describes Genetic technology. So let’s start this topic off by learning about the basics! Genomics is the molecular analysis of the entire genome of a species. Another topic discussed in this chapter is biotechnology. Biotechnology is the use of living organisms or the products of living organisms for human benefit. Genetic engineering is also discussed. What is genetic engineering? Genetic engineering is the direct capability to manipulate genes for usually practical purposes. What is gene cloning you may ask?! Well, gene cloning is a method of viewing certain genetic information. Two important factors that scientists like to keep in mind while completing gene cloning are to enhance the gene product or to get a clearer picture of the DNA. Why is gene cloning sooo important to everyone? It contributes towards scientific information and has provided the foundation for critical technical advances in many different studies in the sciences. Genetic technologies helps build better understand of topics such as genetics, biochemistry, math, and ailments and medicines. Some steps of gene cloning, in order to successfully clone genes are as follows:
The steps listed above are just the jest of what goes on during this process, however as you can see the term vectors is mentioned multiple times. What exactly is a vector? Vectors are is a type of DNA that acts as a carrier of a DNA segment that is to be cloned. Why is this necessarily important? Vectors are important to scientists because they are able to replicate and code for a gene. Why might this be better than chromosomal DNA? To simply put it, there is just too much extra stuff in it. Think of it like the Bing commercials and compare the chromosomal DNA like those ‘other’ internet browsers and how they give you all that extra junk information that can sometimes be unnecessary and even irrelevant to your search topic, and think of the vectors as Bing which brings you straight to your search topic, with none of the extra fillers (by the way this was not product placement, I actually hate Bing the commercial just came on the television as I was doing this).
So now you may ask, what type of DNA do scientists use for cloning? What do scientists look at and consider? Scientists look at the genomic library and the cDNA library. A genomic library is a type of DNA library in which the inserts are derived from chromosomal DNA. The cDNA library on the other hand is also known as complementary DNA and is a type of DNA library in which the inserts are derived from cDNA.
What method do scientists use to determine the size of DNA? They use the process known as gel electrophoresis. What is gel electrophoresis? It is a process in which it uses charges in order separate the molecules in the gel. How does this work? First off, you should know that DNA has a negative charge. Since it has this charge, the strands move towards the positive end of the gel, while the gel is made of different layers which prevent larger pieces of DNA to move across and lets the smaller ones move at a faster pace.
Another topic of discussion in the chapter was about the process of PCR. What is PCR? Well it stands for polymerase chain reaction and allows one to separate DNA and amplify the number of strands. The process goes through extensive denaturation, primer annealing, and primer extension.
Another topic of discussion was genomics. What is genomics? It is considered to be the genes in every human’s entire genome. A process known as functional genomics goes through different methods that are utilized to study the expression of a genome. The entire genome is not fully expressed at the same time, and they are expressed variously. How can scientists determine which genes are expressed and which ones aren’t? Scientists use DNA microarray, this is used to monitor the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. Scientists mark certain DNA strands and identify them as to whether they are coding or noncoding genes.
Like we already mentioned, biotechnology is very important and scientists are able to take insulin (from humans) and insert it into the plasmid (of the bacteria) so it can be replicated numerous times. Now you may wonder can this process be used in animals. The answer is of course! The test has been done on sheep (see the link below). When a human gene is inserted into the oocyte of the sheep cell, it will sooner or later mature and replicate until fully developed. The sheep’s milk contained a hormone from humans (from when it was first inserted).
Now moving onto another topic discussed, GMO’s. What is GMO? Genetically Modified Foods which can be detected by using the method of PCA or ELSA. Two major forms of modified genes that scientists focus on are transgenic and gene knockout. What is a transgenic gene? It is used to describe an organism that carries genes that were introduced using molecular techniques such as gene cloning. What is gene knockout (sounds a little bit dangerous)? This is an organism in which both copies of a functional gene have been replaced with nonfunctional copies and it can occur through gene replacement experimentally. One of the last topics of this chapter that was discussed was the difference between gene cloning and reproductive cloning. Gene cloning is altered through the process of molecular techniques. Reproductive cloning is the cloning of a multicellular organism. This chapter was extremely interesting and has helped broaden my understanding of genetic technology.
(P.S.- I did this blog over the weekend but I didn't notice that I didn't copy and paste the right document onto here)
This first video is of how scientists were able to clonew the sheep Dolly succesfully. This is relevant to this chapter because it covers gene cloning an the whole shabang process of it. I recommend watching this video full screen so you can see the diagrams much more clearly. From the methods used to clone the sheep, scientists have also come to the conclusion that we can find away to bring back animals that have been extinct.
This video shows the process of Recombinant DNA. Although there is no narration, the animation and the written steps help you guide through the video. I find that this is extremely informative and it relates to the topic because recombinant DNA is a crucial theme in this chapter. Recombinant DNA is essentially the usage of laboratory techniques to isolate and maipulate fragments of DNA. Without this, genetic technology could not be possible.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21393177
This article briefly talks about the scientific discoveries concerning the
Epidemiological and molecular aspects of rifampicin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from wounds, blood and respiratory samples form Spain. Methods for rifampicin-resistant isolates, the rpoB gene fragment (includes the most frequent mutations conferring rifampicin resistance) in S. aureus were amplified and sequenced. Scientists have not come up with a full diagnosis on this discovery, however their work can come in great contribution for later years of fighting for human health. This article relates to the topic of this chapter because the methods included in this trial deal with cloning and genetic technology (the entire point of this chapter).