Title: Unit 6 Key Terms
Course: SAT 170 Introductory Biotechnology > Section: SAT 170 Introductory Biotechnology

Unit 6 Key Terms

Terms

Term | Definitions
Agar | a material isolated from the cell walls of certain algae; serves as the source of agarose for agarose gel electrophoresis
Agarose | a polysaccharide (type of sugar/carbohydrate) that has been isolated from agar and is commonly used in gel electrophoresis of DNA samples
Annealing | the process of allowing two complementary fragments of DNA to attach to one another; such as that which occurs during PCR as a primer binds to its complementary DNA fragment
Cloning | in the context of biotechnology, cloning is a process or set of methods used to make identical copies of DNA fragments (known as molecular cloning), cells or organisms
di-deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate (ddNTP) | a type modified nucleotide used for DNA sequencing which has hydrogen rather than a hydroxyl group at the 3’ end of the deoxyribose sugar
DNA Ligase | DNA replication enzyme that seals together the fragments of DNA created during the replication process to create continuous daughter strands
Endonuclease | an enzyme that is able to cut in the middle of a chain of nucleic acids
Exonuclease | an enzyme that is able to cut at the end of a chain of nucleic acids
Fluorescence | the light that is emitted from a substance after it has absorbed light
Gel electrophoresis | a laboratory technique used for separating molecules using a gel matrix and a buffer that conducts an electrical current
Human Genome Project | international research project whose goal was to discover the specific sequence of nucleotides in the entire human genome
Plasmid | a small, circular, double-stranded, extra-chromosomal piece of DNA commonly found in bacteria
Polymerase Chain Reaction | a technique which is used to amplify the number of copies of a particular segment of DNA
Recombinant DNA | a piece of DNA that results from two pieces of DNA from different origins being combined
Restriction enzyme | a type of endonuclease which cuts at a specific sequence of nucleotides known as a restriction site
Taq Polymerase | a specific type of DNA polymerase that is used in PCR which was isolated from the bacterial species Thermus aquaticus
Thermophile | a type of extremophile (inhabit extreme environments) which thrives at high temperatures