Read the following paragraph and answer the given questions:

In order to link the alien DNA, the vector needs to have very few, preferably single, recognition sites for the commonly used restriction enzymes. Presence of more than one recognition site in the vector will generate several fragments, which will complicate the gene cloning. In order to link the alien DNA, the vector needs to have very few, preferably single, recognition sites for the commonly used restriction enzymes. Presence of more than one recognition sites within the vector will generate several fragments, which will complicate the gene cloning. The ligation of alien DNA is carried out at a restriction site present in one of the two antibiotic resistance genes. The recombinant plasmids will lose tetracycline resistance due to insertion of foreign DNA but can still be selected out from non-recombinant ones by plating the transformants on tetracycline containing medium. The recombinants will grow in ampicillin containing medium but not on that containing tetracycline. But, non- recombinants will grow on the medium containing both the antibiotics. In this case, one antibiotic resistance gene helps in selecting the transformants, whereas the other antibiotic resistance gene gets inactivated due to insertion of alien DNA, and helps in selection of recombinants. Origin of replication (ori) is a sequence from where replication starts and any piece of DNA when linked to this sequence can be made to replicate within the host cells. This sequence is also responsible for controlling the copy number of the linked DNA. So, if one wants to recover many copies of the target DNA it should be cloned in a vector whose origin support has high copy number.

Which one of the given sites is commonly used by the restriction enzyme?

Recognition site

The correct answer is Option (2) → Recognition site   

The cutting of DNA at specific locations became possible with the discovery of the so-called ‘molecular scissors’– restriction enzymes. Restriction enzymes belong to a larger class of enzymes called nucleases. These are of two kinds :exonuclease and endonuclease .  Exonucleases remove nucleotides from the ends of the DNA whereas, endonucleases make cuts at specific positions within the DNA.

Restriction endonucleases: These enzymes are also known as restriction enzymes. They act as molecular scissors and can recognize specific DNA sequences (known as recognition sites) and cut the DNA at those sites. Different restriction enzymes cut DNA at different recognition sites. This property allows scientists to precisely cut DNA at specific locations.