A collection of cloned DNA fragments representing the entire genetic material of an organism. This facilitates screening and isolation of any particular gene. Individual genes in the library are identified using specific gene probes with the Southern blotting technique or, via their protein products, using Western blotting .
Gene libraries are thus repositories of raw material for use in genetic engineering.
A human gene library may contain some 500,000 separate clones. A Dictionary of Science, Oxford University Press 3. All rights reserved.