Core - Molecular Biology

Chapter 15

Studying DNA and RNA

15.1 : Recombinant DNA

15.1 : Recombinant DNA

Overview Scientists create recombinant DNA by combining DNA from different sources—often, other species—in the laboratory. DNA cloning allows ...

15.2 : DNA Isolation

15.2 : DNA Isolation

DNA isolation protocols can be fast and straightforward or complex and time-consuming depending on the type and quality of DNA required for further ...

15.3 : DNA Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

15.3 : DNA Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

Agarose gel electrophoresis is a laboratory technique commonly used to separate DNA fragments by size. However, it can also be used to isolate and purify ...

15.4 : Labeling DNA Probes

15.4 : Labeling DNA Probes

DNA probes are fragments of DNA labeled with a reporter tag to enable their detection or purification. The resulting labeled DNA probes can then hybridize ...

15.5 : Southern Blot

15.5 : Southern Blot

Agarose gel electrophoresis is very useful in separating DNA fragments by size. Running a DNA ladder containing fragments of the known length alongside ...

15.6 : DNA Microarrays

15.6 : DNA Microarrays

Microarrays are high-throughput and relatively inexpensive assays that can be automated to analyze large quantities of data at a time. They are used in ...

15.7 : Complementary DNA

15.7 : Complementary DNA

Overview Only genes that are transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) are active, or expressed. Scientists can, therefore, extract the mRNA from cells to ...

15.8 : FISH - Fluorescent In-situ Hybridization

15.8 : FISH - Fluorescent In-situ Hybridization

Fluorescence in situ hybridization, or FISH, was developed in the early 1980s and has quickly become one of the most widely used techniques in ...

15.9 : PCR - Polymerase Chain Reaction

15.9 : PCR - Polymerase Chain Reaction

Overview The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is a widely used technique for copying segments of DNA. Due to exponential amplification, PCR can produce ...

15.10 : Real Time RT-PCR

15.10 : Real Time RT-PCR

Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, or Real-time RT-PCR, is an analytical tool used to determine the expression level of target ...

15.11 : RACE - Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends

15.11 : RACE - Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends

Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends, or RACE, is one of the most effective methods to obtain a full-length cDNA from an mRNA sequence between a known ...

15.12 : Sanger Sequencing

15.12 : Sanger Sequencing

DNA sequencing is a fundamental technique that is routinely used in the biological sciences. This method can be applied to a range of questions at ...

15.13 : Next-generation Sequencing

15.13 : Next-generation Sequencing

The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and ...

15.14 : RNA-seq

15.14 : RNA-seq

RNA sequencing, or RNA-Seq, is a high-throughput sequencing technology used to study the transcriptome of a cell. Transcriptomics helps to interpret the ...

15.15 : Genome Annotation and Assembly

15.15 : Genome Annotation and Assembly

The genome refers to all of the genetic material in an organism. It can range from a few million base pairs in microbial cells to several billion base ...

15.16 : Restriction Enzymes

15.16 : Restriction Enzymes

Restriction enzymes are bacterial enzymes used to cut DNA in a sequence-specific manner. To cleave DNA, they bind to specific palindromic sequences called ...

15.17 : Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing

15.17 : Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing

In the same year as the discovery of the Sanger sequencing method, another group of scientists, Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert, demonstrated their ...