Biotechnology is the manipulation of organisms or their components to make useful products.

Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of genes for practical purposes.

Recombinant DNA is a DNA molecule (made in a lab) that is a combination of pieces of DNA from two different sources.

Plasmids are small, circular DNA molecules that duplicate separately from the larger bacterial chromosome.

Gene cloning involves the production of multiple identical copies of a gene-carrying piece of DNA. Gene cloning methods are central to the production of useful products from genetically engineered organisms.