Recombinant Protein Technologies (Part 1)

For Biotechnology course

1. Describe a couple of reasons why cDNA is cloned into plasmids when using bacterial protein expression systems rather than genomic sequence for a particular gene.
2. How could you remedy a situation where the 5′ end of a cloned gene forms a hairpin structure with the Shine-Delgarno sequence?
3. Insulin is first created as preproinsulin in the pancreas.  What processing steps occur to arrive at active insulin?  How was the production of insulin modified to avoid these processing steps?
4. What additional modification(s) can be made to create fast-acting insulin for type I diabetics?
5. What additional modification(s) can be made to create slow-acting insulin for type II diabetics?
6. Describe two strategies for addressing inefficient codon usage.