Recombination

In the natural state, recombination is the process by which genomic information is rearranged during meiosis.

In the immune system, it also refers to somatic rearrangement, which occurs in gene formation when antibody and T-cell antigen receptors are encoded.

The process has been exploited to introduce a gene for a foreign protein into the chromosomes of an organism, in order to express a protein normally foreign to that organism.
The latter is referred to recombinant DNA technology.