FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 331:599-600 September 1, 1994 Number 9 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

For molecular biologists in search of clues to cell function, the ultimate object of inquiry is the gene. A scientist looking for a particular gene faces a formidable challenge, because each cell contains more than 100,000 different genes scattered over billions of nucleotides. To identify a gene, it is necessary to make some order out of the original material and then to devise a way of distinguishing the desired gene from all the others. Recombinant DNA libraries fulfill these requirements.

In theory, the use of restriction enzymes to cut DNA into predictable lengths, which was reviewed in the preceding article . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Recommended Reading

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Naber, S. P. (1994). Molecular Pathology -- Diagnosis of Infectious Disease. NEJM 331: 1212-1215 [Full Text]