Restriction digest
A restriction digest is a procedure used in molecular biology to prepare DNA for analysis or other processing. It is sometimes termed DNA fragmentation (this term is used for other procedures as well). Hartl and Jones describe it this way:
The resulting digested DNA is very often selectively amplified using PCR, making it more suitable for analytical techniques such as agarose gel electrophoresis, and chromatography. It is used in genetic fingerprinting, and RFLP analysis.