Genes

Abstract

The advent of recombinant DNA technology has offered new opportunities for innovations to produce a wide range of bioproducts in food and agriculture, health and disease, and environment. Biotechnology is recognized universally as one of the key enabling technologies for the 21st century forming the basis of genetic engineering where genes are isolated, modified, and inserted into organisms. The new CRISPR-Cas9 technology has made it easier to make direct changes to a DNA strand called gene editing. In applied sciences such as clinical medicine, biotechnology, forensics, molecular, and evolutionary biology, sequencing DNA has become an important tool. Gene therapy is a technique used to correct single gene disorders where a cloned normal gene is separated and inserted into a cloning vector. Biotechnology has called for oversight and regulation in ways that makes its application and products safe for human use and operating within human ethical and social guidelines. This chapter explores recombinant DNA technology.