Friday, August 13, 2010

The Science Behind GM

In the last post I gave some simple descriptions of some of the terms you are likely to hear/see when learning about GM – as promised, here is a more detailed description of what exactly happens in Genetic Engineering.

Scientists have found enzymes (proteins which act as catalysts within the cell to speed up or slow down processes) which can cut DNA and paste it back together again. This has allowed scientists to cut out whole genes from one set of DNA and paste them into another set of DNA, usually within another organism.

Scientists have also discovered little things called vectors, which are strands of DNA that can insert themselves into other DNA. An example of this is a virus.

Using this knowledge, we can now customize the DNA of organisms to a degree.

Why would we want to do this?

In crops, for example, if one crop is resistant to a specific disease which another crop is highly susceptible to, we can take the individual gene from the resistant crop and insert it into the susceptible crop. All of a sudden, the susceptible crop can become resistant!

This is very handy, as it can reduce to need for insecticides, pesticides, fungicides etc. Or even make fruit ripen later after picking (extending the shelf life), make it larger or juicier, allow crops to become more resistant to things such as heat and frost... the possibilities are endless.

Many people question the need for such drastic measures. Haven’t we already been doing this sort of thing all along with traditional breeding?

Look out for my next post, which will explain in more detail exactly what traditional breeding is, and why scientists are turning from this to GE in order to improve crops.

Useful Websites:

Enzyme:

GE:

1 comment:

  1. Hey Emily - have you seen this http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/index.php/site/project/16/ ?

    Erin

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