Construction of the first artificial recombinant DNA molecule aimed in

The construction of the first artificial recombinant DNA molecule was aimed at cloning an antibiotic-resistant gene in E. coli.

Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen successfully constructed the first artificial recombinant DNA molecule. Their goal was to insert a piece of DNA containing an antibiotic-resistant gene into E. coli, a common bacterium found in the human gut, and then select for the bacteria that had taken up the new gene.

The researchers used restriction enzymes to cut the DNA into fragments, then spliced the antibiotic-resistant gene into a plasmid, which is a small, circular piece of DNA that can replicate independently within a host cell. The plasmid was then introduced into E. coli cells, and those that had taken up the plasmid were selected for using an antibiotic that the resistant gene provided resistance to.