Assignment

G9 – 12th April 2020

LO: To explain the significance of genetic engineering.

S.C: I can define the term genetic engineering.

I can describe how genetic engineering is done.
I can analyse its importance and possible disadvantages.

Task 1:

Read the article given below. Highlight the key terms.

What Is Genetic Modification?

Genetic modification is the process of altering the genetic makeup of an organism. This has been done
indirectly for thousands of years by controlled, or selective, breeding of plants and animals. Modern
biotechnology has made it easier and faster to target a specific gene for more-precise alteration of the
organism through genetic engineering.
The terms "modified" and "engineered" are often used interchangeably in the context of labeling
genetically modified, or "GMO," foods. In the field of biotechnology, GMO stands for genetically modified
organism, while in the food industry, the term refers exclusively to food that has been purposefully
engineered and not selectively bred organisms. This discrepancy leads to confusion among consumers,
and so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prefers the term genetically engineered (GE) for
food.
A brief history of genetic modification
Genetic modification dates back to ancient times, when humans influenced genetics by selectively
breeding organisms, according to an article by Gabriel Rangel, a public health scientist at Harvard
University. When repeated over several generations, this process leads to dramatic changes in the
species.
The earliest known genetically modified plant is wheat. This valuable crop is thought to have originated in
the Middle East and northern Africa in the area known as the Fertile Crescent, according to a 2015 article
published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine. Ancient farmers selectively bred
wheat grasses beginning around 9000 B.C. to create domesticated varieties with larger grains and hardier
seeds. By 8000 B.C., the cultivation of domesticated wheat had spread across Europe and Asia. The
continued selective breeding of wheat resulted in the thousands of varieties that are grown today.
Corn has also experienced some of the most dramatic genetic changes over the past few thousand years.
The staple crop was derived from a plant known as teosinte, a wild grass with tiny ears that bore only a
few kernels. Over time, farmers selectively bred the teosinte grasses to create corn with large ears
bursting with kernels.
Beyond those crops, much of the produce we eat today — including bananas, apples and tomatoes —
has undergone several generations of selective breeding.
The technology that specifically cuts and transfers a piece of recombinant DNA (rDNA) from one
organism to another was developed in 1973 by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, researchers at the
University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University, respectively. The pair transferred a piece
of DNA from one strain of bacteria to another, enabling antibiotic resistance in the modified bacteria. The
following year, two American molecular biologists, Beatrice Mintz and Rudolf Jaenisch, introduced
foreign genetic material into mouse embryos in the first experiment to genetically modify animals using
genetic engineering techniques.
Researchers were also modifying bacteria to be used as medications. In 1982, human insulin was
synthesized from genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, becoming the first genetically engineered human
medication approved by the FDA.
The first genetically engineered crop approved for cultivation in the U.S. was the Flavr Savr tomato in
1994. The new tomato had a longer shelf-life thanks to the deactivation of the gene that causes
tomatoes to start becoming squishy as soon as they're picked. The tomato was also promised to have
enhanced flavor, according to the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Today, cotton, corn and soybeans are the most common crops grown in the U.S. Nearly 93 percent of
soybeans and 88 percent of corn crops are genetically modified, according to the FDA. Many GMO crops,
such as modified cotton, have been engineered to be resistant to insects, significantly reducing the need
for pesticides that could contaminate groundwater and the surrounding environment.

Today, livestock are often selectively bred to improve growth rate and muscle mass and encourage
disease resistance. For example, certain lines of chickens raised for meat have been bred to grow 300
percent faster today than they did in the 1960s. For the past several decades, researchers have been
genetically modifying lab animals to determine ways the biotechnology could one day help in treating
human disease and repairing tissue damage in people, according to the National Human Genome
Research Institute. One of the newest forms of this technology is called CRISPR (pronounced "crisper").

Task 2: Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vribRyVQ6G8

Task 3: Answer the following questions based on what you read (Type your answers in this document)

1. How is genetic modification done?

2. Why are crops genetically modified?
3. Why is genetic modification being done in labs for several decades by biotechnologists?
4. Do you think genetic modification should be done? Why or why not?