Recombinant DNA is a piece of DNA that has been created by combining two or more fragments from different sources using laboratory methods of genetic recombination. This technology involves using enzymes and various laboratory techniques to manipulate and isolate DNA segments of interest, which can be used to combine DNA from different species or to create genes with new functions. Recombinant DNA is widely used in biotechnology, medicine, and research, and is important to most current work in the biological and biomedical sciences.
Recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to isolate one gene or any other segment of DNA, enabling researchers to determine its nucleotide sequence, study its transcripts, mutate it in highly specific ways, and reinsert the modified sequence into a living organism. This technology has been successfully applied to make important proteins used in the treatment of human diseases, such as insulin and growth hormone. Recombinant DNA technology also enables the manufacture of proteins and antibodies with a defined specificity and uniformity, which is a vast improvement over traditional methods.
