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SlideshowReport

Genetic modification of organisms and DNA recombinant

Description
Genetic engineering = laboratory manipulation of genetic material
Creates a genetically modified (GM) organism
Recombinant DNA = DNA patched together from the DNA of multiple organisms

Biotechnology = the material application of biological science to create products derived from organisms
Transgenic organism = an organism that contains DNA from another species
Transgenes = the genes that have moved between organisms
Biotechnology has helped us create medicines, clean up pollution, understand the causes of cancer, dissolve blood clots after heart attacks, and make better beer and cheese

Genetic engineering vs traditional breeding

Similar:
Both alter gene pools for preferred characteristics
Both apply to plants and animals
Different:
Traditional breeding uses genes from the same species
Selective breeding deals with whole organisms, not just genes
In traditional breeding, genes come together on their own

Most GM crops today are engineered to resist herbicides, others to resist insects
Three-fourths of the world’s soybean plants are transgenic
As are one out of every four corn plants and over half of all cotton plants
Globally, in 2013, GM foods grew on 175 million hectares of farmland, producing $10.5 billion worth of crops


Impacts of GM crops:

As GM crops expanded, scientists, citizens, and policy makers became concerned
Dangerous to human health
Escaping transgenes could pollute ecosystems and damage nontarget organisms
Pests could evolve resistance
Could ruin the integrity of native ancestral races
Interbreed with closely related wild plants

The future of GM foods seems likely to hinge on social, economic, legal, and political factors as well as scientific ones
Transnational spats will surely affect the future direction of agriculture, but consumers and the government’s of the world’s developing nations could exert the most influence in the end
India and Brazil approve of GM  crops
China is expanding use of transgenic crops

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