Nucleic Acids Electrophoresis Quiz

Genetic Engineering

• The process of introducing foreign DNA into a bacterial cell is called transformation.

DNA Manipulation

• Ligase is the enzyme used to catalyze the process of joining two pieces of DNA from different sources together.
• Restriction enzymes are proteins that cleave DNA molecules at specific sites.
• The main function of restriction enzymes in bacterial cells is to protect against viral infections.

Plasmid DNA

• The supercoiled conformation of plasmid DNA migrates fastest in a gel during electrophoresis.
• The first step in rapidly isolating plasmid is alkaline lysis.
• Cutting plasmid vector with AvaI is called restriction.

Electrophoresis

• The purpose of using molecular weight markers during electrophoresis is to determine the size of the DNA fragments.
• Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) has high resolving power and separates DNA only over a narrow size range.
• Agarose gel electrophoresis has less resolving power and separates DNA molecules of up to tens, and even hundreds, of kilobases.
• In polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, small molecules such as oligonucleotides can be resolved from one another with the applied electric field.

Cloning

• The primary purpose of cloning a piece of DNA using endonucleases is to amplify the DNA fragment.
• DNA ligation requires ATP and a cofactor such as NAD+ or ATP.
• Expression of a cloned gene can be accomplished by inducing the transcription and translation of the gene in a host cell.

Plasmid Vectors

• Plasmids can carry antibiotic resistance genes naturally.
• Plasmids can be engineered to be useful for protein expression, gene therapy, and vaccine development.
• The cloning marker for plasmid vectors that contain the lacZ gene is β-galactosidase.

Test your knowledge about the process of separating DNA and RNA molecules through gel electrophoresis. This quiz covers topics such as gel matrix, resolving power, and staining methods for visualizing bands.