What is the purpose of using a selectable marker in recombinant DNA technology?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the purpose of using a selectable marker in recombinant DNA technology?
To enhance protein expression
To identify successfully transformed cells
To increase DNA stability
To reduce mutation rates
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the purpose of using a selectable marker in recombinant DNA technology?
Step 1: Understand that recombinant DNA technology involves inserting a piece of DNA into a cell.
Step 2: Know that not all cells will take up the new DNA; some will remain unchanged.
Step 3: A selectable marker is a gene that helps identify which cells have successfully taken up the new DNA.
Step 4: The selectable marker usually provides a trait, like antibiotic resistance, that allows only the transformed cells to survive in a specific environment.
Step 5: By applying the specific condition (like an antibiotic), only the cells with the selectable marker will grow, making it easy to identify them.
