Final answer:
In molecular biology, gel electrophoresis and restriction endonuclease cleavage are two methods used to separate vector DNA from foreign DNA.
Step-by-step explanation:
In molecular biology, the two methods commonly used to separate vector DNA from foreign DNA are gel electrophoresis and restriction endonuclease cleavage. Gel electrophoresis is a technique that separates molecules based on size using electric charge.
It can be used to distinguish between supercoiled (uncut) plasmid DNA and linearized (cut) DNA. Restriction endonucleases are enzymes that recognize specific DNA sequences and make staggered cuts in the two strands of DNA.
The cut ends of the DNA fragments have a single-stranded overhang that is complementary to other DNA fragments with the same overhang, allowing them to be joined together using DNA ligase.