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Title: Why is the term GMO a misnomer for transgenic organisms? Post by: tleebergene on Feb 12, 2018 Why is the term GMO a misnomer for transgenic organisms?
What will be an ideal response? Title: Why is the term GMO a misnomer for transgenic organisms? Post by: aboudyb on Feb 12, 2018 Humans have been genetically modifying crop plants for thousands of years by artificial selection, which has dramatically increased the yield and nutritional value of crop plants. There is now an alternative to artificial selection: genes can be transferred into crop plants using biotechnology. These transgenic plants are produced faster and more precisely than by plant breeding and carry specific new phenotypic characteristics such as resistance to insects or herbicides. The transferred gene can originate from another plant, an animal, or even from fungi or bacteria. In contrast to selective breeding, which transfers hundreds or thousands of genes in each cross, transgenic plants receive only one or a few specific genes. In the media, transgenic plants are often called genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or genetically modified (GM) plants. However, in the larger picture, all crop plants have been genetically modified over thousands of years by selection and crossbreeding before the use of biotechnology to accomplish the same goal.
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