Some of the techniques that I’m working with are:
PCR
Purification of PCR
Ligation
Transformation

PCR

Fig 1 ; PCR Machine

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique widely used in molecular biology. It derives its name from one of its key components, a DNA polymerase used to amplify a piece of DNA by in vitro enzymatic replication. As PCR progresses, the DNA thus generated is itself used as template for replication. This sets in motion a chain reaction in which the DNA template is exponentially amplified. With PCR it is possible to amplify a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating millions or more copies of the DNA piece. PCR can be performed without restrictions on the form of DNA, and it can be extensively modified to perform a wide array of genetic manipulations.

Ligation

Fig 2 DNA ligase with DNA

DNA ligases have become an indispensable tool in modern molecular biology research for generating recombinant DNA sequences. For example, DNA ligases are used with restriction enzymes to insert DNA fragments, often genes, into plasmids.

One vital, and often tricky, aspect to performing successful recombination experiments involving ligase is controlling the optimal temperature. Most experiments use T4 DNA Ligase (isolated from bacteriophage T4) which is most active at 25°C. However in order to perform successful ligations, the optimal enzyme temperature needs to be balanced with the melting temperature T_m (also the annealing temperature) of the DNA fragments being ligated.

If the ambient temperature exceeds T_m, homologous pairing of the sticky ends will not occur because the high temperature disrupts hydrogen bonding. The shorter the DNA fragments, the lower the T_m. Thus for sticky ends (overlaps) less than ten base pairs long, ligation experiments are performed at very low temperatures (~4-8°C) for a long period of time (often overnight).

The common commercially available DNA ligases were originally discovered in bacteriophage T4, E. coli or other bacteria.

Transformation

Is the genetic alteration of a cell resulting from the uptake and expression of foreign genetic material (DNA). Separate terms are used for genetic alterations resulting from introduction of DNA by viruses (“transduction”) or by cell-cell contact between bacteria (“conjugation”). Transformation of animal cells is usually called transfection.

The term transformation is also used more generally to describe mechanisms of DNA and RNA transfer in molecular biology (i.e. not only the genetic consequences). For example the production of transgenic plants such as transgenic maize requires the insertion of new genetic information into the maize genome using an appropriate mechanism for DNA transfer; the process is commonly referred to as transformation.

Most part of the information posted in this blog have been taken from Wikipedia.org