How are genes isolated? What is the process?

[jaboo]

In biotechnology, how are genes isolated? What is the process?

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

There’s no single answer; there are many techniques (and variants of those techniques) that can be employed depending on what you precisely want to achieve. But the generalised ‘old-school’ method is graphically illustrated here:

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=swf::535::535::/sites/dl/free/0072437316/120078/micro10.swf::Steps%20in%20Cloning%20a%20Gene

 

[S.A.M.]

great animation, Hercules.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

The ‘old-school’ method illustrated in the above link is to isolate a copy of the gene of interest from the organism of interest via screening of a library using various techniques. But ever since the advent of PCR it is more common to directly amplify your gene of interest from genomic or complementary DNA. This has the benefits of not having to screen for your gene and the generation of lots of DNA copies that makes the downstream sub-cloning into vectors much easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction

http://www.dnalc.org/resources/animations/pcr.html