gene cloning questions - (Dec/13/2008 )

1) How do you get the plasmid ( = how do you isolate the bacterial plasmid from cells) out of the cell? If not from cells (although Campbell and Reece Biology says there are on page 387) where do they come from? 2) Some books say that antibiotic resisting genes are already in the plasmid and some are not. (Campbell and Reece Biology, please refer to page 387 bullet point (1)) If yes, then they naturally have it, but if they naturally have it, then how can they tell it from those that don't have recombinant DNA (in gene cloning) in the end. If no, how do they get there? If yes, how do people engineer the gene to be placed in the plasmid?

So... did you read the red writing at the top of your page?

If you tell us what your answers might be then we will probably help. People will not answer your homework for you.

Actually, these are NOT homework problems (it was moved here, however)...
These are just questions that I CAME UP WITH while I was reading the textbook and didn't seem to get them.

And yes, I did read the red writing on the top of this page.