DNA

In the past 25 years, we have learned a lot about DNA, and are now able to manipulate genes. Plants are genetically modified to possess desirable traits such as resistance to disease and to grow with less water and fertilizer. There are even certain Idaho potatoes that all grow to the same size, so McDonald’s french fries are the same length! Human genes are inserted into bacteria to inexpensively produce drugs that treat diseases. Soon, non-life threatening cosmetic changes will be available for those who can afford them.

Conduct an internet search to find an interesting example of genetic engineering. Then, summarize what you discovered in about 200 words.

reply to her.

“I found one that looks very interesting as it talks about glow in the dark animals. Now that has to do with some sort of genetic modifying if anything else. Back in 2007, a scientist from South Korea altered a cats DNA to make it glow in the dark and took that DNA to make other clones out of it. The researchers took skin cells from Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert genetic instructions for making red fluorescent protein. Then they put the gene-altered nuclei into the eggs for cloning, and the cloned embryos were implanted back into the donor cats — making the cats the surrogate mothers for their own clones. The reason for this is that scientists say the ability to engineer animals with fluorescent proteins will enable them to artificially create animals with human genetic diseases. Also before that scientists in Taiwan were able to make a pig glow florecent green, which helped there case even further. Even more than ten years ago we were doing things like this so I could only imagine what we are capable of now and in the future. By now it is prabably not only possible but has been happening without us even knowing.”