An overview of gene cloning

Abstract

Gene cloning has been given varying names from genetic engineering to recombinant DNA technology and it has been attacked by various groups on religious, moral or ethnic grounds. It is defined as the isolation of individual genes by generating recombinant DNA molecules, which are then propagated in a host cell which produced a clone that contains a single fragment of the target DNA. The foundation for this field was built by numerous people, from Gregor Mendel's initial work on inheritance, to elucidation of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick. The real spark plugs came in 1967, when DNA ligase was isolated followed by isolation of the first restriction endonuclease in 1970. These enzymes act like a molecular "glue" and "scissors" respectively allowing DNA to be cut and joined. This lead to the creation of the first recombinant DNA molecule in 1972.