What is a typical application of recombinant DNA technology?

• A. Cloning, research, or therapy
• B. Measuring allele frequencies in populations
• C. Determining evolutionary relationships
• D. Observing natural selection in populations

Answer: (A)

Recombinant DNA technology is about joining DNA from different sources to create new genetic combinations that can be cloned and expressed in a host organism. This makes cloning, research, and therapy a typical application because you can copy a gene to study its function, produce recombinant proteins (like insulin) for medicine, or develop gene-based treatments. Other activities such as measuring allele frequencies in populations, determining evolutionary relationships, or observing natural selection fall under population genetics and evolutionary biology and do not inherently involve constructing and expressing recombinant DNA, so they aren’t typical applications of this technology.