Lesson 3.

3 Learning Task Worksheet

These questions should help you to review the content and skills that you learned by reading
Concepts 20.1 and 20.4 of your textbook and completing all of the lesson activities.

● Read each question carefully.

● Complete each question thoroughly.

● Turn in your completed worksheet to your teacher.

1. What is the name of the special polymerase enzyme used in PCR? What makes it special,
and what benefit does it bring to the process of PCR?

2. List the steps that occur in every cycle of PCR.

3. Why does the proportion of target sequences get greater as the number of PCR cycles
continues?

4. Why are primers needed for every cycle of PCR?

5. How is PCR used in prenatal testing to help diagnose fetal abnormalities?

6. How is PCR used to help doctors detect tiny amounts of RNA from viruses in an attempt to
determine if a patient is carrying a specific pathogen?

7. A. How do retroviruses normally reproduce within a cell? (Hint: See Figure 19.9 for help.)

B. How do scientists use retroviruses in gene therapy?

C. How can the insertion of a new gene into a cell result in the cell becoming cancerous?
(Hint: Look at Figure 18.23 for more information about cancer.)

8. How does the presence of introns in eukaryotic genes cause problems for researchers who
try to get a eukaryotic gene to be expressed in a prokaryotic cell?
9. When a researcher wants to obtain the protein product of a cloned gene, what is the logic
behind using an expression vector with a very active promoter?

10. List three reasons why it is a good idea for biotechnologists to use yeast cells in
biotechnology experiments.

11. What is the process of bacteria taking in external DNA?

12. How can a plasmid with an antibiotic-resistance gene be used to help researchers obtain a
large amount of bacteria that have been successfully transformed?

13. Scientists sometimes use electroporation to introduce cloning vectors into cells. How does
this process work?

14. How can genetically modified bacteria contribute to environmental cleanup?

15. List at least three ways that genetic engineering contributes to the design of beneficial food
products.
16. Compare the use and production of GMO’s in the United States to their use in the European
Union (EU). Why is there such a discrepancy?