Complementary DNA.

In genetics, complementary DNA (cDNA) is DNA synthesized from a mature mRNA template in a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme reverse transcriptase. cDNA is often used to clone eukaryotic genes in prokaryotes.OverviewThe central dogma of molecular biology outlines that in synthesizing proteins, DNA is transcribed into mRNA, which is translated into protein. One difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic genes is that eukaryotic genes can contain introns (intervening sequences), which are not coding sequences, and must be spliced out of the RNA primary transcript before it becomes mRNA and can be translated into protein. Prokaryotic genes have no introns, so their RNA is not subject to splicing.Often it is desirable to express eukaryotic genes in prokaryotic cells. A simplified method of doing so would include the addition of eukaryotic DNA to a prokaryotic host, which would transcribe the DNA to mRNA and then translate it to protein. However, as eukaryotic DNA has introns, and since prokaryotes lack the machinery to splice them, the splicing of eukaryotic DNA must be done prior to adding the eukaryotic DNA into the host. This spliced DNA is called complementary DNA. To obtain expression of the protein encoded by the eukaryotic cDNA, prokaryotic regulatory sequences would also be required (e.g. a promoter).