What is molecular cloning?
Q: What is molecular cloning?
A: Molecular cloning is a type of work in molecular biology used to assemble recombinant DNA molecules and direct their replication within host organisms.
Q: How does the process of molecular cloning work?
A: In a molecular cloning experiment, the DNA to be cloned is obtained from an organism of interest, then treated with enzymes in the test tube to get smaller DNA fragments. These fragments are then joined with vector DNA to produce recombinant DNA molecules. The recombinant DNA is then introduced into a host organism (typically an easy-to-grow, benign, laboratory strain of E. coli bacteria). This produces a population of organisms in which recombinant DNA molecules are replicated along with the host DNA.
Q: What do these clones contain?
A: The clones contain foreign DNA fragments, making them transgenic or genetically-modified microorganisms (GMOs).
Q: How many bacterial cells can be induced to take up and replicate a single recombinant molecule?
A: A single bacterial cell can be induced to take up and replicate a single recombinant molecule.
Q: What happens when this single cell replicates?
A: When this single cell replicates it can generate a large amount of bacteria, each containing copies of the original recombinant molecule.
Q: Is there any difference between "recombinant" and "molecular cloning"?
A: Strictly speaking, "recombinant" refers to the actual DNA molecules while "molecular cloning" refers to the experimental methods used for assembling them.
