Genetic Engineering

What is plasmid?

A ring of DNA.

True or False: despite the bacterial cell containing genes from another species, it is not considering genetically modified (GM) or transgenic.

False

What are genetically engineered foods?

Foods which are produced from crops whose genetic makeup has been altered through a process called recombinant DNA, or gene splicing, to give the plant a desirable trait.

What are 3 criticisms against genetically modified foods?

Gene transfer to non-target species, unintended harm to toehr organisms and unknown effects on human health.

How is imprecise technology a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Genes are moved from one organism to another. A gene can be cut precisely from the DNA of an organism, but the insertion into the DNA of the target organism is basically random. As a consequence, there is a risk that it may disrupt the functioning of other genes essential to the life of that organism.

How are allergic reactions a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering can also produce unforeseen and unknown allergens in foods.

How are toxins a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering can cause unexpected mutations in an organism, which can create new and higher levels of toxins in foods.

How is no long-term safety testing a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering uses material from organisms that have never been part of the human food supply to change the fundamental nature of the food we eat. Without long-term testing no one knows if these foods are safe.

How is our entire food supply being threatened a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Insects, birds, and wind can carry genetically altered seeds into neighboring fields and beyond. Pollen from transgenic plants can cross-pollinate with genetically natural crops and wild relatives. All crops, organic and non-organic, are vulnerable to contamination from cross-pollination.

What is the third procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Insert DNA into Plasmid With the plasmid ring open, the gene for insulin is inserted into the plasmid ring, and the ring is closed. The human insulin gene is now recombined with the bacterial DNA plasmid.

What is the fourth procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Insert Plasmid back into cell The bacterial DNA now contains the human insulin gene and is inserted into a bacteria. (Scientists use very small needle syringes to move the recombined plasmid through the bacterial cell membrane.)

Genetic engineering is used to produce many drugs used in medical treatments. List three examples.

Insulin, human growth hormone and hepatitis B vaccine.

What is the first procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Isolate Gene The gene for producing HUMAN insulin protein is isolated.

What is a benefit of using human genes to produce hormones?

It helps prevent the harmful side effects of using products from animal tissues. It also reduces the use of animals for medical research.

What is DNA testing/DNA fingerprinting?

It involves analysing specific regions of DNA taken from cells of individuals, scenes of accidents or crime scenes.

What is captive breeding?

It involves breeding and raising animals in human controlled environments, e.g. zoos, aquaria and wildlife reserves.

Why is DNA important?

It is the blueprint for the individuality of an organism. . The organism relies upon the information stored in its DNA for the management of every biochemical process. The life, growth and unique features of the organism depend on its DNA.

What is biotechnology?

The manipulation of organisms or their components to make useful products.

What three ways is gene therapy currently being tested for use?

1. By inserting a functional gene into cells to replace a defective gene that causes a disease. 2. By inactivating or 'turning off' a defective gene that causes a disease. 3. By introducing a gene into cells to help the body's immune system to fight a disease.

What are two other examples of genetic engineering in food production?

1. Developing genes which can be inserted into plants to make them resistant to insect pests. 2. Helping to produce healthier farm animals, which produce higher yields. For example, gene that stimulates growth and increases milk production in cows, are genetically engineered into bacteria so that large amounts of the hormone are available for injection into cows to improve yields.

What are 4 advantages of genetic engineering?

1. GM bacteria can make large amounts of proteins that humans need in a pure form. Insulin is a good example of this. 2. Engineered genes can help improve the growth rates of plants and animals, to improve food value of crops and reduce fat in animals. They are also used to produce plants which make their own pesticide chemicals. 3. GM goods last longer in supermarkets and can be designed to grow in places that are too hot, too dry or too cold for normal production. This can help to reduce world hunger. 4. A number of farm animals have been engineered to produce life-saving proteins in their blood or milk. For example, transgenic sheep produce the Factor 8 needed by haemophiliacs to make their blood clot.

What are 4 disadvantages of genetic engineering?

1. Genetic engineering is new and largely unproven so the long-term effects are unknown. For example, insects may become pesticide resistant from eating plants that produce their own pesticide chemicals. 2. People are concerned about possible health effects from eating GM plants and animals. They are also concerned that genes from these organisms might spread to natural species and contaminate the gene pool. 3. GM plants and animal technologies are often 'owned' by large companies. The crops are often not fertile (they do not produce seeds) so farmers in poor countries are at a disadvantage as they have to buy new seed each year. 4. Human genetic engineering may allow people who can afford it to manipulate the genes of unborn fetuses to produce clever, pretty, or sporty children. This idea of producing designer babies raises serious moral and ethical issues.

What are 6 possible disadvantages of genetic engineering?

1. Plants genetically engineered to be toxic to a pest may also be toxic to useful organisms, e.g. insects that bring about pollination. This could negatively affect wild plants and reduce reproduction in crops, reducing food production. 2. Plants genetically engineered to be resistant to pests and herbicides could create unpredictable environmental issues, e.g. they could lead to the development of pesticide-resistant insects or they could interbreed with closely related wild plants and create herbicide-resistant superweeds. 3. Once a genetically modified organism is released into the environment, it cannot be contained or recalled. Any negative effects are irreversible. 4. The number of allergens in foods could be increased by transferring genes causing allergic reactions between species. 5. As yet unknown health risks may occur as a result of eating genetically modified plants and animals. 6. Large companies with funds and technology to develop genetically modified organisms could make large profits at the expense of smaller companies and poorer nations. 7. Future steps in genetic engineering might allow the genetic make-up of higher organisms, including humans, to be altered, e.g. to produce 'designer babies'. Difficult moral and ethical issues then arise, e.g. how far should we go in changing our own genes and those of other animals?

List two reasons why DNA profiling is used in captive breeding programmes.

1. To assess the genetic diversity of organisms to be bred thereby preventing breeding organisms that are too genetically similar, i.e. inbreeding. 2. To help prevent the loss of genetic diversity within offspring and future generations of offspring produced by the breeding programmes.

What is DNA test/DNA fingerprinting used to do?

1. To determine if two DNA samples are from the same person thereby helping to solve crimes. 2. To determine the paternity and, in some cases, the maternity of a child. 3. To identify a body. 4. To detect genetic disorders or diseases before birth or early in life so treatment can begin at an early age. 5. To help genetic counsellors predict the likelihood that a child who is born to parents who have a genetic disease, or are carriers of a genetic disease, will suffer from the disease. 6. To identify family relationships thereby reuniting families. 7. To determine ancestral lines and create family trees.

What are 6 possible advantages of genetic engineering?

1. Yields can be increased by genetic engineering which should increase the world food supply and reduce food shortages. 2. The nutritional value of foods can be increased by genetic engineering which should reduce deficiency diseases worldwide. 3. The need for chemical pesticides that harm the environment can be reduced by genetically engineering crops to be resistant to pests. 4. Vaccines produced by genetic engineering are generally safer than vaccines containing live and weakened, or dead pathogens. 5. Larger quantities of drugs in a safer and purer form can be produced than were previously produced from animal sources resulting in more people worldwide having ready access to safe, life-saving drugs. 6. It overcomes ethical concerns of obtaining certain drugs from animals, e.g. insulin used to be obtained from pigs and cows.

What is genetic engineering?

A laboratory technique that involves changing the traits of one organism by inserting genetic material from a different organism into its DNA.

Name an ideal cell for introducing desirable genes into host cells.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens

What is a transgenic organism/genetically modified organism?

An organism that contains genes from other species.

Why do scientists argue that genetically engineered vaccines are beneficial?

Because they do not cause symptoms of the disease (like live vaccines can) since they do not contain the virus itself.

What are 5 other drugs produced by genetic engineering?

Blood clotting drugs for people with haemophilia, follicle stimulation hormone used to stimulate the ovaries to produce mature ova in woman that are infertile, interferons used to treat viral infections and certain cancers, anticoagulants used to prevent the development of life-threatening blood clots in heart patients, human papilloma virus vaccine.

What hormone can you insert into cattle [made it themselves] to increase milk and meat production?

Bovine somatotrophin (BST) hormone

What did scientists start to do?

Build vectors which incorporated genes of their choosing and used the new vectors to insert these genes into the DNA of living organisms.

How can you increase cheese production worldwide using genetic engineering?

By transferring the gene that controls the production of chymosin (rennin) from calf stomach cells into bacteria or fungi, the micro-organisms produce chymosin which is used in cheese production.

What is the seventh procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Cells Produce Proteins Millions of people with diabetes now take human insulin produced by bacteria or yeast (biosynthetic insulin) that is genetically compatible with their bodies, just like the perfect insulin produced naturally in your body.

What are 4 advantages of genetically modified foods?

Disease resistance, drought tolerance/salinity tolerance, nutrition, pest resistant.

What can be used to change the structure of DNA in living organisms?

Enzymes

What are two examples of genetically engineered hormones? Excluding the human hormone insulin.

Human growth hormone and calcitonin (controls the absorption of calcium into bones).

How is genetic engineering used to develop safer vaccines against hepatitis B?

I would first extract and purify the gene for the virus coat protein from the Hepatitis B virus cell. I would then implant it into yeast cells, which would multiply and create clones of modified cells producing a lot more viral coat protein. The vaccine is made using these viral coat proteins.

How would you genetically modify a plant to become resistant to herbicides?

I would start by removing the desired gene from the chromosome using an enzyme. Then, using an enzyme, I would cut open the plasmid after removing it from the cell (i.e. Agrobacterium tumefaciens). I would next use an enzyme to add the gene for herbicide resistance to the plasmid. I would then reintroduce the plasmid into the cell after that.

How is a gene pollution that can not be cleaned up a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Once genetically engineered organisms, bacteria, and viruses are released into the environment, it is impossible to contain or recall them. Unlike chemical or nuclear contamination, negative effects are irreversible.

What is the fifth procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Plasmid multiply Many plasmids with the insulin gene are inserted into many bacterial cells. While they live, the bacterial cell processes turn on the gene for human insulin and the insulin is produced in the cell. When the bacterial cells reproduce by dividing, the human insulin gene is also reproduced in the newly created cells.

What is the second procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Prepare Target DNA A circular piece of DNA called a plasmid is removed from a bacterial cell. Special proteins [enzymes] are used to cut the plasmid ring open.

How are side effects a danger as it relate to genetic engineering?

Scientists do not yet understand living systems completely enough to perform DNA surgery without creating mutations which could be harmful to the environment and our health.

What are vectors?

Strands of DNA, such as viruses, which can infect a cell and insert themselves into its DNA.

What is the sixth procedure followed to induce bacteria to make human hormone insulin?

Target Cells Reproduce Human insulin protein molecules produced by bacteria are gathered and purified.

What is recombinant DNA technology?

Techniques that allow the transfer of genetic material from one organism to another and deliberately alter DNA.

How would these herbicide resistant plants make plants that are also resistant?

The GM cell-infected plant would form a crown gall. The modified plasmid is located in the genetic material of the gall cells. I would remove the explants from the galls, and these gall cells would develop into plantlets that are herbicide-resistant.

What is the aim of captive breeding?

The aim is to prevent the extinction of endangered species, conserve species that may not survive well in the wild, reintroduce animals back into the wild and preserve biodiversity.

What is DNA profiling?

The analysis of DNA fragments to determine whether they come from the same individual.

How is a damaged ecology a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

The influence of a genetically engineered organism on the food chain may damage the local ecology. The new organism may compete successfully with wild relatives, causing unforeseen changes in the environment.

What are genes?

The segments of DNA which have been associated with specific features or functions of an organism.

What is gene therapy?

The transplantation of normal genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones in order to correct genetic disorders. For example, gene therapy for sickle cell anaemia would aim to add normal genes to the patient's genetic make-up so that he or she did not develop the disease.

What is one concern that arises from genetic engineering as it related to bacteria and viruses?

The use of large colonies of bacteria and viruses, which may escape into the environment.

What is a way in which genetic engineering can be used to transfer genes from non-plant organisms to plant organisms.

There is a bacterium called B.T. or Bacillus thuringiensis. It is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are lethal to insect larvae. The crystal protein genes transfer into corn, enabling the corn to produce its own pesticides against insects such as the European corn borer.

What have scientists discovered enzymes can do?

They can cut specific genes from DNA and build customized DNA using these genes.

How did scientists extend the growing season of tomatoes?

Tomatoes are sensitive to frost, which shortens their growing season. Fish, however, survive in very cold water. Scientists identified a particular genes which enables fish to resist cold and used genetic engineering to insert this 'anti-freeze' gene into a tomato. This makes it possible to extend the growing season of the tomato.

How is decreased nutritional value a danger as it relates to genetic engineering?

Transgenic foods may mislead consumers with counterfeit freshness. A luscious-looking, bright red genetically engineered tomato could be several weeks old and of little nutritional worth.

How is widespread crop failure a danger as it relate to genetic engineering?

When a farmer plants genetically engineered seeds, all the seeds have identical genetic structure. As a result, if a fungus, a virus or a pest develops which can attack this particular crop, there could be widespread crop failure.

What are 10 dangers of genetic engineering?

allergic reactions, decreases nutritional value, ecology may be damaged, gene pollution cannot be cleaned up, imprecise technology, no long-term safety testing, side-effects, threatens entire food supply, toxins, widespread crop failure