It is a short sequence of DNA extracted from a virus, plasmid, or a higher organism's cell that can be stably transferred and maintained in another organism.
Thus, it is a carrier to transport a DNA sequence from the host organism to another organism for cloning purposes.
It can be inserted or integrated with foreign DNA and can then replicate within the host cell to produce many clones of recombinant DNA.
Examples of vectors utilized for cloning, particularly in prokaryotes, are plasmids and phages.
A cloning vector entails the following:
An origin of replication: This provides the start point for the replication of the recombinant DNA.
Antibiotic-resistance genes: This helps in selecting the clones from a mixture of both recombinant and normal DNA vectors. The recombinant DNA is antibiotic-resistant.