BIOTECH ASSIGNMENT NO.

2
By: Khadija Tariq

Submitted to: Dr. Saad.

MCQs

1. Which of the following is not true about genes:

 Genes are components of genetic material and are thus units of inheritance
 They control the morphology or phenotype of individuals
 Genes carry the hereditary information from one generation to the next
 Genes change their expression due to position effect and epistasis
2. Which one is an example of inducible gene?
 Nitrate for nitrate reductase
 Globin gene family
 Lactose system in E. coli
 tRNA genes
3. Technologies which can produce genome modifications, such as targeted mutagenesis or site-
directed insertion/deletion/substitution, at specific sites in the genome of living organisms are
known as
 Genetic engineering
 Gene editing
 CRISPR
 Gene shuffling
4. CRISPR/Cas 9 is _________ generation gene editing tool
 First generation
 Second generation
 Third generation
 Fourth generation
5. Cas9 is a
 RNA endonuclease
 DNA endonuclease
 DNA ligase
 RNA ligase

SAQS

1. Briefly explain the activity of Cas9 in bacteria.

A. Cas9 is a DNA nuclease that with the help of the associated machinery cleaves foreign DNA that
enters a bacteria.
2. What is a transgenic organism?
A. Any organism that undergoes genetic engineering or any recombinant DNA technology. A
transgenic organism contains genetic material from at least two different species and is
artificially altered.
3. What is the disadvantage of using an organism like E. coli as a host for genetic engineering?
A. The disadvantage of using an organism such as E. coli as a host for cloning is that it is a
prokaryote, and therefore lacks the membrane bound nucleus (and other organelles) found in
eukaryotic cells. This means that certain eukaryotic genes may not function in E. coli as they
would in their normal environment and thus affect their expression.
4. What are plasmids and why are they used as vectors in genetic engineering?
A. Plasmids are circular DNA molecules found in prokaryotes, they contain genes for antibiotic
resistance and are shared during transformation. They have origin of replication sites, certain
selectable markers, they also have sites that are recognized by different restriction
endonucleases thus they make up for good vectors.
5. What are intronic and exonic regions of genes?
A. Intronic regions are the coding regions where as exonic regions are the non-coding regions of a
gene. Usually eukaryotic genes contains these because these regions are involved in mRNA
spilicing before it leaves the nucleus to be translated.