18. Biotechnology

What is the source of the reverse transcriptase used in recombinant DNA technology?

Which of the following enzymes is key to the automation of polymerase chain reactions (PCR)?

In the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the sequence of bases in the primers is important because it __________.

Because eukaryotic genes contain introns, their transcripts cannot be translated by bacteria, which lack RNA-splicing machinery. But if you want to engineer a bacterium to produce a eukaryotic protein, you can synthesize a gene without introns. A good way to do this is to __________.

A paleontologist has recovered a tiny bit of organic material from the 400-year-old preserved skin of an extinct dodo. She would like to compare DNA from the sample with DNA from living birds. Which of the following would be most useful for increasing the amount of DNA available for testing? a. restriction fragment analysis b. polymerase chain reaction c. molecular probe analysis d. electrophoresis