The key difference between gene amplification and gene cloning is that the gene amplification is the process of making many copies of the gene of interest in vitro by a polymerase chain reaction. But, gene cloning is a process of making many copies of the gene of interest in vivo by making a recombinant plasmid and transforming it into a host bacterium.
A gene is a specific fragment of DNA that codes for a protein. An organism possesses thousands of genes. Moreover, it is possible to multiply the DNA sequences of important genes using molecular biological techniques. Gene amplification and gene cloning are two such procedures. Both procedures produce many copies of a gene of interest. However, there is a difference between gene amplification and gene cloning in terms of their methodology.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Gene Amplification
3. What is Gene Cloning
4. Similarities Between Gene Amplification and Gene Cloning
5. Side by Side Comparison – Gene Amplification vs Gene Cloning in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is Gene Amplification?
Gene amplification is the process of making copies of a particular gene using polymerase chain reaction. To amplify a gene, the DNA of that particular organism should be extracted using a proper DNA extraction protocol. Then the extracted double-stranded DNA should be denatured to obtain separated single strands. The next step includes using a PCR reaction to make copies of the gene of interest. Furthermore, the PCR mixture contains required primers, nucleotides, DNA polymerase enzyme, template DNA and other ingredients. At the end of the PRC program, amplification of the gene of interest takes place.
Figure 01: Gene Amplification
Furthermore, gene amplification is an initial step in the detection of a specific sequence, identification of an organism, diagnosing diseases and making gene libraries, etc.
What is Gene Cloning?
Gene cloning is a method in genetic engineering to make gene libraries or make many copies of the gene of interest. This process involves making a recombinant plasmid and transforming of the recombinant plasmid into a host cell, especially a bacterial cell. Clone is an identical copy of the original organism or a molecule. Gene cloning can make thousands of gene clones.
Figure 02: Gene Cloning
Once the gene of interest is identified, it can be separated from the genome of a particular organism by restricting it with specific restriction enzymes. Then using the same restriction enzyme, plasmids (vectors) should be opened up to insert the gene fragment. Then the recombinant plasmid is transformed into a host bacterium using different methods such as electroporation. Some of the recombinant plasmids enter into host bacterial cells. Using an antibiotic, the transformed bacteria can be selected, isolated and cultivated in fresh media. Thus, this technique helps to obtain millions of gene clones.
What are the Similarities Between Gene Amplification and Gene Cloning?
- Gene amplification and gene cloning are two molecular biological techniques.
- In both these techniques, a particular DNA sequence or a gene multiplies in million or thousands times.
- Moreover, both techniques are of utmost importance to many scientific areas.
What is the Difference Between Gene Amplification and Gene Cloning?
Gene amplification is a process that makes copies of a particular gene using in vitro method called PCR. On the other hand, gene cloning is a process that makes copies of a particular gene using in vivo method via constructing recombinant vectors and multiplying them in living organism. So, this is the key difference between gene amplification and gene cloning. Furthermore, gene amplification takes only a few hours while gene cloning takes several days to complete. Therefore, we can consider this too as a difference between gene amplification and gene cloning. Moreover, the gene amplification process shows fewer errors, while gene cloning process shows more errors.
The following infographic summarizes the difference between gene amplification and gene cloning.
Summary – Gene Amplification vs Gene Cloning
Gene amplification is the process of making copies of the desired gene using polymerase chain reaction under in vitro conditions while gene cloning is the process of making copies of a gene of interest using a recombinant DNA molecule and a living organism/host bacterium. Thus, this is the basic difference between gene amplification and gene cloning.
Reference:
1. “Molecular Cloning.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Aug. 2019, Available here.
2. “Gene Amplification.” Gene Amplification – an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “PCR” By Madprime – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Steps of Molecular Cloning” By Alexpicardal97 – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia