Genetic Engineering

What happens in genetic engineering?

Genes from one organism are cut out and transferred to the cells of a different organism e.g. bacteria.

The genome is now modified.

What is insulin?

A hormone involved in blood glucose regulation in humans.

People with type 1 diabetes cannot make their own insulin, so inject themselves regularly.

What have people done with bacteria for genetic engineering?

Bacteria have been genetically modified to contain the human insulin gene. These bacteria now produce human insulin. This insulin can be purified and used for type 1 diabetes.

What can we do with crops?

Transfer genes into plants to produce genetically modified crops.

Generally, GM crops produce a greater yield than normal crops.

What can we do when genetically modifying crops?

• Make them resistant to disease or insect attack.

• Produce bigger or better fruits.

How are some GM crops resistant to herbicides?

Farmers can spray their fields to kill weeds without harming the GM crops.

Why do some people question whether GM crops are safe?

• Could GM crops be harmful to insects or wildflowers?

• Some people feel we need to do more research on health effects of eating GM crops.

What is genetic modification currently being explored as?

As a way to treat inherited disorders in humans. Scientists call this gene therapy.

Long term effects of this are not known. If we modify a gene, we don’t know the potential effects on the other genes.

What is the first step of genetic engineering?

• Identify the gene that we want to transfer e.g. could be a human gene or a gene from another animal, or from a plant.

What do we do when we have identified the gene?

Use enzymes to isolate the gene.

What do we do once the gene is isolated?

We transfer the gene into a small circle of DNA called a plasmid.

Plasmids originally came form bacteria and are useful for transferring DNA from one organism to another.

What could we also use instead of a plasmid?

A virus.

What do we call the plasmid or virus because they can transfer the DNA from one organism to another?

Vectors.

What is the final step of genetic engineering?

the desired gene is transferred into the cells of the target organism e.g. animal, plant or microorganism.

What is important about when we transfer the gene?

We must always transfer the gene at an early stage in the organism’s development.

e.g. if we were transferring the gene into an animal, we would do this at the early embryo stage.

This is to make sure all of the cells receive the transferred gene.