Consider the following statements.

I. Recombinant DNA technology popularly known as genetic engineering is a stream of biotechnology that deals with the manipulation of genetic material by man in vitro.

II. pBR322 is the first artificial cloning vector developed in 1977 by Boliver and Rodriquez from E. coli plasmid.

III. Restriction enzymes belong to a class of enzymes called nucleases.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

I, II and III

The correct answer is Option (4) - I, II and III

The correct statements are:

I. Recombinant DNA technology popularly known as genetic engineering is a stream of biotechnology which deals with the manipulation of genetic material by man in vitro.

II. pBR322 is the first artificial cloning vector developed in 1977 by Boliver and Rodriguez from E. coli plasmid.

III. Restriction enzymes belong to a class of enzymes called nucleases.

Explanation:

I. This statement is correct. Recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering involves the manipulation of genetic material (DNA) to create new combinations of genes. This is done in vitro, meaning outside of a living organism's natural environment, to produce desired outcomes.

II. This statement is correct. pBR322 is indeed one of the first artificial cloning vectors developed in 1977 by Boliver and Rodriguez. It is a plasmid derived from Escherichia coli (E. coli) and has been widely used in genetic engineering experiments.

III. This statement is correct. Restriction enzymes are a class of enzymes that specifically recognize and cleave DNA at specific sequences, often referred to as restriction sites. They are called nucleases because they cleave nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) by breaking the phosphodiester bonds between nucleotides.

Therefore, all three statements are correct.