ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a description of the basic hypothesis of cell structure and function and how the development of recombinant DNA technology was vital to the testing and refining of these basic notions. In general, DNA is used for the long-term storage of genetic information, and Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is used as a transient or short-lived message to convert the stored information into functioning components of the cell, generally proteins. The structure of the DNA molecule allows both the efficient storage of genetic information and the accurate transmission of the information to daughter cells during cell division. RNA is part of a complicated protein synthesis system that decodes the genetic information stored in the nucleotide sequences of DNA. Recombinant DNA methodology developed as a direct result of research designed to understand gene structure and function by testing the relationship between nucleotide sequence and gene function.
