(25) First let us know what is DNA probe.
- DNA probes are generally small, single stranded fragments of
DNA which is complementary to the target sequence or the target DNA
sequence.
- The probes can be generated as inserts in the plasmids by
recombinant DNA techniques.
- DNA probes generally employs a method called nucleic acid
hybridization to rapidly detect complementary sequence in the given
sample or test sample.
- Thus DNA probes are used to detect the presence of specific
nucleotide sequence by nucleic acid hybridization in the target
sequence.
- These DNA probes are usually labeled (for eg. with radio
isotopes) which enables their detection.
So the answer is:
In Recombinant DNA, the DNA probe is used
to
* find a specific nucleotide
sequence