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genetically modified organisms or GMOs

have had their DNA artificially modified

by humans using modern genetic

manipulation techniques by changing the

DNA

so changing the genome of an organism

means we can change its characteristics

humans have been artificially altering

the genomes of plants and animals for

thousands of years by selective breeding

today with advances in genetic

engineering techniques means we can

speed this process up by incorporating

specific new genes from one species into

a completely unrelated species crops

farm animals and soil bacteria are three

of the most common uses of genetic

engineering to make GMOs the cotton

plant that grows the cotton for your

t-shirt might have been genetically

modified to be pest resistant or the

bacteria modified to produce life-saving

medicines as well as the better known GM

crops that we eat and then there's some

wacky organisms like spider goats and

glow-in-the-dark mice firstly let's find

out how genetic modification happens the

short answer is there are a couple of

different ways there are several

techniques that can be used to modify a

genome but the main one relies on

bacteria bacteria are single-celled

organisms that don't have a nucleus like

our cells but instead of one main circle

of DNA called the circular chromosome

and lots of tiny circles of DNA called

plasmids in GMOs it's all about the

plasmids they are really useful tiny

bits of DNA that can contain one or

several genes the cool thing about

plasmids is that they can be passed

between bacteria as easily as shaking

hands so plasmids are a super important

part of how to netic modification

happens let's go through the steps using

the human insulin gene as an example

first we cut the gene for human insulin

from a human cell using an enzyme we

then use the same enzyme to cut the

circular bacterial plasmid open and

stick the insulin gene and the plasmid

together then we put the modified

plasmid back into a bacterial cell and

we wait but not for too long as

bacterial cells divide roughly once

every 30 minutes and a little while

later we have millions of bacteria

producing the human insulin protein and

excreting it the human insulin is

filtered out and purified and can then

be used by people with diabetes how

simple is that for saving lives spider

goats are also a great example of a

genetically modified organism they

aren't as scary as they sound they're

goats that have had the spider silk gene

inserted into their DNA so when a female

go to lactate produced breast milk the

milk contains spider silk the spider

silk is pretty incredible

it's as strong as steel but so light

their strand long enough to circle the

earth would weigh less than 500 grams so

there are thousands of uses for such a

unique material scientists have used

genetic modification to introduce genes

that glow under UV light such as from

jellyfish into other animals for medical

research

this may seem totally useless but

actually being able to see certain cells

in the dark has led to a lot of

scientific discoveries glow-in-the-dark

mice and fish have helped scientists

make new breakthrough research into

treating cancer Parkinson's and spinal

cord injuries and glow-in-the-dark cats

have been used for HIV research crops

can also be genetically modified to make

them more pest resistant to have a

nutritional benefit like additional

vitamin A

to learn about GM crops what's this

video so there we have two Nestle

modified organisms that have had their

DNA modified some different uses if you

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