DNA Recombination Technology

Jeffrey Babas

Nowadays, human lives are very much dependent on three things: food, health and
environment in which we can see that it is now more common than before. With increasing
population and depleting resources we cannot assure if the food we have is enough to feed the
growing numbers. We can also notice the vast amount of waste we produced as we process
raw materials and even the impacts of environment on the agriculture sector. Some people
suffers from illness and face inevitable death early. Rapid increase in industrialization has
soared up the environmental pollution and industrial wastes are directly allowed to mix with
water, which has affected aquatic marines and, indirectly, human-beings. Therefore, these
issues urge to be addressed through modern technologies.
Although traditional techniques are used to aid these problems about health,
agriculture, environmental issues by using traditional or alternative medicines, traditional
farming and reducing and recycling waste respectively, genetic engineering use modern tools
and approaches DNA cloning and the like, in which consume less time and produce more
effective and quality products.
DNA recombination technology is playing an important role on improving human’s live
with regards on health, lifestyle and techniques as it provides vital things such as vaccines,
medicines for various diseases, modern generation of more quality and effective products such
as vegetables, fruits and meat which greatly improves our way of living.

KEY TERMS
Microinjection- is the process of transferring genetic materials into a living cell using glass
micropipettes or metal microinjection needles. Glass micropipettes can be of various sizes with
tip diameters ranging from 0.1 to 10 µm. DNA or RNA is injected directly into the cell's nucleus.
Electroporation- is a physical transfection method that uses an electrical pulse to create
temporary pores in cell membranes through which substances like nucleic acids can pass into
cells.
Vector- is used as a vehicle to carry a particular DNA segment into a host cell as part of a
cloning or recombinant DNA technique.
Plasmid- A plasmid is a small circular DNA molecule found in bacteria and some other
microscopic organisms. Plasmids are physically separate from chromosomal DNA and replicate
independently.
Genetic library- It is a collection of the total genomic DNA from a single organism. 

What is Recombinant DNA technology?

 DNA Recombination Technology
Jeffrey Babas

It is the alteration of genetic material outside an organism to obtain enhanced and

desired characteristics in living organisms or as their products. This technology involves the
insertion of DNA fragments from a variety of sources, having a desirable gene sequence via
appropriate vector.
What is the most widely used vectors?
Today, the E. coli λ bacteriophage is one of the most widely used vectors used to carry
recombinant DNA into bacterial cells. This virus makes an excellent vector because about one-
third of its genome is considered nonessential, meaning that it can be removed and replaced by
foreign DNA.

Why is this important?

DNA Recombination technology is used on many aspects such as medicine, agriculture
and industry. This is important because It enables the creation of multiple copies of genes and
to manipulate the genes in order to achieve new or desirable trait.

How DNA recombination works?

There is a process on achieving DNA Recombination:
i. Isolation of gene of interest to be cloned
On the first step of genetic recombination, we need to first obtain our gene of
interest in order to isolate it and put it into our vector later on. We can find these genes
on a genetic Library in which It is a collection of the total genomic DNA from a single
organism.
ii. Insertion of isolated gene into suitable vector (carrier)
After we isolate our gene of interest we will now proceed on getting our vector which
refers to the carrier “vehicle” of our gene of interest. After that, the vector which is
commonly from bacteria with circular structure is called plasmid, will now appear as
cleaved due to restriction enzymes in order to the gene of interest combine with the
vector. The structure now is called DNA recombinant
iii. Introduction of vector to a host (transformation)
After the unification between vector and gene is done, the DNA recombinant is
now introduced on the host cell, commonly bacteria with a process of either physical
like electroporation (using electric pulses to have a permeable cell membrane) or micro
injecting or chemical based like Calcium chloride mediated.
 DNA Recombination Technology
Jeffrey Babas

iv. Identifying host with the recombinant DNA created

This process is not done to a single host only, there are multiple hosts in order to
make sure that there is a chance of having the cell they are looking for. Sometimes,
there are instances that the host is not be compatible with the introduced DNA
recombinant giving us a 3 possible result;

 Non-transformed cell
This is the cell with no traces of any DNA recombinant
 Transformed cell with unchanged vector
This has the vector, but not the substrate
 Transformed cell with Recombinant DNA
This has the DNA recombinant and the one we are looking for;
subject for replication.
v. Multiplication of the introduced gene from the host
At this time, the cell will now replicate and the gene of interest will have two works: to
clone more genes or to use the gene in order to create protein.

DNA recombination Uses

Therapeutic products
Therapeutics products including vaccines, growth hormone, and insulin are results of
genetic engineering as there are disease–causing microorganisms can be treated using specific
protein, there is a gene that is responsible on growth, and there’s also a gene that is
responsible on producing insulin which are used for person with diabetes.
Genetically modified products
Plant genes are modified in order to yield more and produce quality products, for
instance they genetically modified a certain type of rice to have beta- carotene which our body
converts into vitamin A.
Energy production
It is used to produce clean fuel such as biohydrogen which is from photosynthetic
bacteria and non-photosynthetic bacteria from combustion of water. They are genetically
engineered to have more capacity to produce efficiently.