What is site-directed mutagenesis?

Site-directed mutagenesis is a molecular biology technique used to create specific, targeted changes in the DNA sequence of a gene or any other DNA fragment. It is commonly used to investigate the structure and biological activity of DNA, RNA, and protein molecules. Researchers use it to introduce specific mutations (e.g., point mutations, insertions, or deletions) into a gene of interest to study the effect of these changes on the gene's function or the protein it encodes.