"Genetic Engineering could have unforeseen and dangerous consequences"
Can you please help me?
The guidelines are
What is Genetic Engineering?
Genetic Manipulation
Uses of Genetic engineering
Cloning
Importance of Genetic Engineering
Research Going on
Motives in Genetic Engineering
Mapping
Money Factor
Please help me. I have to submit it on Monday(27/8/2007).
Answers:
1) Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM), and gene splicing are terms for the process of manipulating genes in an organism, usually outside the organism's normal reproductive process.
or
Genetic engineering or Genetic Manipulation is the deliberate, controlled manipulation of the genes in an organism, with the intent of making that organism better in some way.
2) Uses of Genetic Engineering.
a)Agriculture - Selective breeding.
Much of the food we eat are in some way connected to genetic engineering. In fact, about 60 percent of our food has some sort of biotechnology in it. By taking traits from one organism and putting it into a food, the food can be altered in many ways, like having it last longer, taste better, and grow faster and larger. It can also be designed to be more immune to certain diseases. With less farmers and a greater need of food, genetic engineering can be the savior for this very important field.
Scientists today speed up selective breeding using recombinant DNA technology.
Genetically engineered foods can be made to be larger, healthier, and quicker to mature than ordinary plants. Thus, people have hailed them to be the solution to world hunger. Since the world's population is growing rapidly, the need for food is growing with it. However, due to many things, arable land is steadily decreasing. If bioengineered plants can produce more food than regular plants, then it surely can help against the fight against hunger. However, critics say that by producing more genetic engineered plants may cause something to go awry and hurt the environment with the damage being incorrigible.
b)Medicine - “the greatest medical breakthrough in our or in any lifetime”.
* Gene Therapy
* Insulin Production (and other chemicals)
* Genetic Testing
* Vaccines
* Embryonic Stem Cell Research
* Pharmacogenomics.
If u need more info on this please email me cos its too big to explain them in here...hope you understand.
c) Industries
Genetic engineering thrives in a realm other than in agriculture and medicine. For example, in the diary industry, rennin is an enzyme used to make cheese. This is the enzyme that separates milk into curd and whey. Traditionally, rennin was taken out of dead calves, but this process sparked much controversy and protest because of morality. Now, rennin can be made in labs because the gene used to make rennin was put into microbes, which produce the rennin. Also, many biological weapons were products of genetic engineering. By using genetic engineering, huge fermentation tanks to grow the organisms were not needed anymore. Biotechnology eliminated all of this.
d) Terrorism
Although Genetic Engineering provides humans with a variety of optimistic opportunities never before experienced, it brings with it series of fears and pessimistic possibilities. Terrorism, a disease that plagues the world will only be enhanced with this advancement in knowledge. Genetic Engineering simply constructs viruses faster and easier than ever before experienced, and the test-tube brings with it the possibility of never-before seen diseases as well.
"In other words, geneticists can now greatly speed up evolution in the laboratory to create viruses and bacteria that have never existed in all the billions of years of evolution on earth."
Not only will these knew diseases instill fear amidst the population, but also re-enforce long eradicated diseases such as smallpox. Another weapon for wars. Already a team of scientists has created mousepox, a cousin of smallpox. Harmless to humans yet lethal to mice.
3) CLONING
Cloning is a process that occurs when a tiny part of DNA, known as a gene, is removed from an organism and put in to a different section of DNA; called splicing. The second DNA can be of the first organism, or of another organism. The gene sized DNA is isolated using restriction enzymes. The enzymes break the molecule at a certain place known as the cleavage site. This part of DNA now needs to be put back together with the other molecules, using another enzyme, known as ligase. The hybrid molecule resulted is known as recombinant DNA. When recombinant DNA are mixed with other cells, some take the recombinant DNA, and grow. Each of the transformed cells with the added DNA information grows overnight to a colony of millions of cells. The colony represents a clone, a group of genetically identical cells. There have been several examples of successful cloning, such as the 1996 cloning of a sheep, which was named Dolly. This experiment was led by Ian Wilmut.
E-mail me if u want to know more...
4) Importance and Research and motives of genetic engineering
Genetic Engineering has caused much controversy in the scientific world as well as amidst the general population. Although the fear of terrorism and cloning is instilled amidst most, there are many positive aspects to this sport which makes it very plausible. There are many medical aspects such as cures for diseases and enhanced food. Genetic Engineering is slowly progressing as laws and policies of different regions slowly begin to accept the many possibilities and dispose of the negative aspects.
I cannot list or type all the positives and negatives. Do email me for the details...
5) Mapping
Im hoping it to be Gene mapping and writing this...
is the creation of a genetic map assigning DNA fragments to chromosomes.
When a genome is first investigated, this map is non existent. The map improves with the scientific progress and is perfect when the genomic DNA sequencing of the species has been completed. During this process, and for the investigation of differences in strain, the fragments are identified by small tags. These may be genetic markers (PCR products) or the unique sequence-dependent pattern of DNA-cutting enzymes. The ordering is derived from genetic observations (recombinant frequency) for these markers or in the second case from a computational integration of the fingerprinting data. The term "mapping" is used in two different but related contexts.
Physical Mapping is the process of determining how DNA contained in a group of clones overlap without having to sequence all the DNA in the clones. Once the map is determined, we can use the clones as a resource to efficiently contain stretches of genome in large quantity. This type of mapping is more accurate than genetic maps.
In maps based on a genetic fingerprinting of the clones, the stretches of DNA are identified according to how they are cut by a restriction enzyme. Once cut, the DNA fragments are separated by electrophoresis. The resulting pattern of DNA migration (ie. its fingerprint) is used to identify what stretch of DNA is in the clone. By analysing the fingerprints, contigs are assembled by automated (FPC) or manual means (Pathfinders) into overlapping DNA stretches. Now a good choice of clones can be made to efficiently sequence the clones to determine the DNA sequence of the organism under study (seed picking).
Macrorestriction is a type of physical mapping wherein the high molecular weight DNA is digested with a restriction enzyme having a low number of restriction sites.
Outlined above are alternative ways to investigate to create genetic maps (radiation hybrids, STS,...).
Genes can be mapped prior to the complete sequencing of a by independent approaches like in-situ hybridisation. Once the genome has been sequenced, in-silico approaches perform the gene finding. The such suggested genes are compared with the experimental evidence for the respective gene.
Disease-association:
The process to identify a genetic element that signs responsible for a disease is also referred to as "mapping". If the locus in which the search is performed is already considerably constrained, the search is called the "fine-mapping" of a gene. This information is derived from the investigation of disease-manifestations in large families (Genetic linkage) or from populations-based genetic association studies.
You can add abt the HUMAN GENOME PROJECT here.I'm just giving you the basic definition.
The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a project undertaken in 1990. The goal of the HGP was to understand the genetic makeup of the human species by identifying all the genes in the human genome and mapping how individual genes are sequenced. By some definitions the HGP was completed in 2005.
6) Money Factor.
a)Genetic Engineering cost in agriculture.
Questions un-answered include :
a.Are genetically engineered crops safe?
b.Who assumes the risks of planting these crops?
c.How do neighbors sort out questions of cross pollination? d.Who benefits from genetic engineering, farmers and consumers, or the life-science companies producing the technology?
Email me for more detailed answers along with your questions. Hope this saisfies you for now...
Check wikipedia
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