genetic engineering. what is this? do you hear what i hear?

Genetic Engineering

What Is This?

• Do you hear what I hear?

Selective Breeding• Allowing only those animals with

desired characteristics to produce the next generation

• Humans use selective breeding to pass desired traits on to the next generation of organisms

• Inbreeding- develop pure lines

• Hybrid- usually bigger and stronger

Examples of Selective Breeding

Genetic Engineering

• Transgenic organisms contain recombinant DNA (foreign DNA)

• 3 Step Process

–1. Isolate - cleave via restriction enzymes

–2. Attach – “sticky ends”

–3. Transfer – vector, usually bacterial DNA

Tobacco with “Firefly DNA”

Gel Electrophoresis

DNA Sequencing

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Applications of DNA Technology or Biotechnology

• Cloning• Recombinant DNA in technology,

medicine, and agriculture• Transgenic organisms• Gene therapy

–Sheep alpha-1 antitrypsin for treatment of emphysema

–Goats CFTR protein for treatment of Cystic Fibrosis

Transgenic Animals• Transgenic livestock have been

produced with extra copies of growth hormone genes

• Such animals grow faster and produce meat that is less fatty than that from ordinary animals

• Efforts are now underway to produce transgenic chickens that will be resistant to the bacterial infections that sometimes cause food poisoning

Transgenic Plants

• (2000) 52 % of the soybeans and 25 % of the corn grown in the United States were transgenic

• Many contain genes that produce a natural insecticide, so the crops do not have to be sprayed with synthetic pesticides

• Others have genes that enable them to resist weed-killing chemicals

Cloned Animals

Gene Therapy

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