Editing Recombinant DNA (section)

{{About|DNA molecules|the GPU architecture|RDNA (microarchitecture)}}{{short description|DNA molecules formed by human agency at a molecular level generating novel DNA sequences}}
[[Image:recombinant formation of plasmids.svg|thumb|280px|right|Construction of recombinant DNA, in which a foreign DNA fragment is inserted into a plasmid vector. In this example, the gene indicated by the white color is inactivated upon insertion of the foreign DNA fragment.]]
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'''Recombinant DNA''' ('''rDNA''') molecules are [[DNA]] molecules formed by laboratory methods of [[genetic recombination]] (such as [[molecular cloning]]) that bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating [[DNA sequence|sequences]] that would not otherwise be found in the [[genome]].

Recombinant DNA is the general name for a piece of DNA that has been created by combining two or more fragments from different sources. Recombinant DNA is possible because DNA molecules from all organisms share the same chemical structure, differing only in the [[nucleotide]] sequence. Recombinant DNA molecules are sometimes called '''chimeric DNA''' because they can be made of material from two different species like the mythical [[Chimera (mythology)|chimera]]. rDNA technology uses [[palindromic sequence]]s and leads to the production of [[sticky and blunt ends]].

The DNA sequences used in the construction of recombinant DNA molecules can originate from any [[species]]. For example, plant DNA can be joined to bacterial DNA, or human DNA can be joined with fungal DNA. In addition, DNA sequences that do not occur anywhere in nature can be created by the [[Oligonucleotide synthesis|chemical synthesis of DNA]] and incorporated into recombinant DNA molecules. Using recombinant DNA technology and synthetic DNA, any DNA sequence can be created and introduced into living organisms.

Proteins that can result from the expression of recombinant DNA within living cells are termed ''recombinant proteins''. When recombinant DNA encoding a protein is introduced into a host organism, the recombinant protein is not necessarily produced.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosano |first1=GermÃ¡n L. |last2=Ceccarelli |first2=Eduardo A. |title=Recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli: advances and challenges |journal=Frontiers in Microbiology |date=17 April 2014 |volume=5 |page=172 |doi=10.3389/fmicb.2014.00172 |pmc=4029002 |pmid=24860555 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Expression of foreign proteins requires the use of specialized expression vectors and often necessitates significant restructuring by
foreign coding sequences.<ref>{{cite web|title=Promoters used to regulate gene expression|url=http://www.cambia.org/daisy/promoters/818.html|website=www.cambia.org|access-date=16 February 2018|archive-date=24 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924203918/http://www.cambia.org/daisy/promoters/818.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Recombinant DNA differs from genetic recombination in that the former results from artificial methods while the latter is a normal biological process that results in the remixing of existing DNA sequences in essentially all organisms.