Introduction
Genetic engineering can be done with plants, animals, or microorganisms. Historically, farmers bred plants and animals for thousands of years to produce the desired traits. For example, they produced dogs ranging from poodles to Great Danes, and roses from sweet-smelling miniatures to today's long-lasting, but scent-free reds. (via NLM)
How It's done
There are five major steps to modify a organism.
2. Clone Genes The entire DNA from the organism is extracted at once. Scientists use gene cloning to separate the single gene of interest from the rest of the genes extracted and make thousands of copies of it
|
3. Design Genes Genetic Engineers will now design the gene to work once inside a different organism. This is done in a test tube by cutting the gene apart with enzymes and replacing gene regions that have been separated. 3. |
The cell then reproduces to grow new plants that contain the trangene in all of its cells. |
| Transgenic plants are crossed with elite breeding lines using traditional plant breeding methods to combine the desired traits of elite parents and the transgene into a single line. The offspring are repeatedly crossed back to the elite line to obtain a high yielding transgenic line. The result will be a plant with a yield potential close to current hybrids that expresses the trait encoded by the new transgene. Transgenic plants are crossed with elite (Citations) |
Home | Genetic Modification | Issues | Impacts| Innovators | History | References| Contact Us