
                                                          Form 15 (3/31/86)

                            NSF PROJECT IST-850 5411
              EXPERIMENTS ON THE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF INFORMATION
                       SEEKING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVING

                       USER QUESTIONS FOR ONLINE SEARCHES



QUESTION NUMBER:  040     

A1. BRIEF TITLE:

Technical development and commercial activity in bacterial cloning vectors   



A2. QUESTION STATEMENT:

The purpose of this search is to identify the known or proposed techniques for 
creating bacterial cloning vectors and to identify present or proposed 
commercial activity regarding the sale, manufacture, or application of bacterial 
cloning vectors.

Definitions
Cloning vector - A plasmid or circular piece of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) 
which can be inserted into bacteria which contain new genetic material (genes) 
which manufacture novel proteins.  A cloning vector must contain:
                        - Origin of replication
                        - A strong promoter
                        - Selectable marker

Origin of replication - A location on a cloning vector which permits the 
genetic duplication of the cloning vector.

Promoter - A specific section of the cloning vector which initiates the 
transcription of the DNA into RNA and ultimately into proteins."Transcription" 
is the molecular equivalent of searching and reading a computer file on a 
magnetic disk.

Selectable marker - A section of the cloning vector which makes a novel protein 
which can be easily detected by a researcher and which indicates that the 
cloning vector is operational.

Laboratory sequence for manufacture of cloning vector
    - Cultivate bacteria (microbiology)
    - Isolate plasmids (biochemical separation)
    - Map plasmids (molecular "road map")
    - Develop transformation (manipulation techniques for plasmid)
    - Purify cell DNA (isolate genetic material of interest)
    - Purify cell RNA polymerase (transcription)

Restriction enzymes - molecular "forceps" which can open up, disect, and Šresection DNA








QUESTION 040 - page 2




Key terms
Gene splicing (inserting genetic material into bacteria)
Recombinant DNA (manmade DNA)

Key information requested
- Scientific papers and review articles
- Patents
- Trade journal reports
- Research company annual reports or Dunn's Broadstreet reports
- Names of companies or institutes associated with:
      - genetic engineering
      - recombinant DNA
      - cloning vector
      - restriction enzyme
      - biotechnology
       


TYPE OF SEARCH REQUESTED

B. A precise or a broad search:  Broad
C. Research application:  Industrial- Genetic engineering
D. Retrieve articles in English only or any language:  Any language
E. Years to be searched:  1975 to present
F. DIALOG databases suggested:  LOCKHEED, PREDICAST, BIONET














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