Genetically Modified Crop Plants

1. Genetically Modified Crop Plants

2. Genetic Engineers CanModify Food • Transgenic organisms are produced when a gene from one organism is incorporated into the genome of another • The more popular term for transgenic organisms is GMO, for genetically modified organism • GM foods means genetically modified

3. GMO examples

5. Genetically Modified Food

6. Inserting the Gene

7. Inserting the Gene

8. Inserting the Gene

9. Pros to Creating Genetically Modified Food

10. Pros to GMOs • Better resistance to weeds, pests, disease • Better texture, flavor, nutritional value • Longer shelf life, easier shipment • Better yield, more efficient use of land • Less herbicides and other chemicals • Essential if we are to feed the world

11. Cons to Creating Genetically Modified Food

12. Cons to GMOs • They can have harmful effects on the human body • It is believed that consumption of these genetically engineered foods can cause the development of diseases which are immune to antibiotics. • These foods are new inventions, not much is not known about their long term effects on human beings. As the health effects are unknown, many people prefer to stay away from genetically modified foods

13. Cons to the Environment • Creates “super weeds” • Creates “super bugs” • Effects natural ecosystems

14. Bt and the Monarch butterfly • Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a soil bacterium that produces insecticidal toxins. • Genes from Bt can be inserted into crop plants to make them capable of producing an insecticidal toxin and therefore resistant to certain pests. • Bt corn can adversely affect non-target insects if they are closely related to the target pest, as is the case with Monarch butterfly

15. Genetically Modified Foods in the U.S. Diet • Over half of all food in U.S. market contain at least some GM foods • Most soybeans grown are modified for herbicide resistance • GM corn – an ingredient in most processed foods – is common as well • GM canola and cottonseed oils are used in a huge range of food products

16. FDA Regulations • Manufactures must get FDA approval for an food not generally recognized as safe (GRAS), including new genetically engineered food substances • The FDA declared milk from rBGH cows safe for consumption in 1993

17. How Are GM Foods Evaluated for Safety? • The EPA must approve all GM crops • GM foods can cause allergic reactions (8% of us are allergic to foods) • Newly inserted genes may also encode proteins that prove to be toxins

18. DNA Technology and Genomics

19. Genetic Engineering/ DNA Technology • 3 types of Cloning Technologies: • Recombinant DNA Technology/ DNA Cloning • 2. Reproductive Cloning • 3. Therapeutic Cloning

20. Cloning the bovine growth hormone (BGH) gene

21. Recombinant DNA Technology/ DNA Cloning

22. Cloning a Gene • Cloning means making many copies of a gene

23. Recombinant DNA Technology/DNA Cloning 1. Remove the Gene of Interest 2. Cut the Plasmid DNA 3. Insert the Gene into the Bacterial Plasmid 4. Insert the Recombined Plasmid into the Bacterial Cell 5. Let the Bacteria Reproduce

24. 1. Remove the gene of interest (ex: BGH gene) using restriction enzymes Restriction enzymes cut DNA at specific sequences called palindromes . . .

25. Restriction Enzymes Leave “Sticky Ends”

26. Restriction Enzymes • The unpaired bases on the sticky ends form bonds with any complementary bases with which they come into contact

27. 2. Cut the Plasmid DNA with the Same Restriction Enzyme

28. 3. Insert the Gene of Interest into the Bacterial Plasmid (The bacterial plasmid is also cut with the restriction enzyme, leaving sticky ends)

29. 4. Insert the Recombined Plasmid into a Bacterial Cell

30. 5. Let the Bacteria Reproduce

31. Other Proteins Made by DNA Cloning: • Insulin for diabetics • Clotting factors for hemophiliacs

32. Basic Versus Applied Research Basic research • no profit motive or direct commercial application – generally government funded Applied research • immediate and profitable application – generally privately funded

33. Reproductive Cloning/Cloning Entire Organisms

34. Reproductive Cloning • Technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another curretly or previously existing animal

35. Steps in Nuclear Transfer

36. Steps in Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

37. Results of Nuclear Transfer Experiments There were 277 failures before this nuclear transfer technique succeeded;

38. Reproductive Cloning Dolly was successfully born in 1997

39. Reproductive Cloning • Dolly was put to sleep at the age of 6 in 2003 • She was suffering from arthritis and a progressive lung disease • These are usually only seen in old sheep

40. Other Organisms Reproductively Cloned Mouse Cow Goat Mule Horse Rabbit Cat Pig Dog Rat Deer

41. Why Do Reproductive Cloning?

42. Have We Reproductively Cloned Humans?

43. Opposition and Support of Human Cloning

44. What do YOU think?

45. Therapeutic Cloning/ Embryo Cloning • Instead of cloning entire organisms, there is therapeutic cloning • Stem cells are induced to turn into specific tissue cells

46. Therapeutic Cloning

47. The Human Genome Project Sequenced the entire human genome

48. Goals of The Human Genome Project

49. Organisms With Genome Sequenced Fruit Fly Potato Zebra fish Rhesus Macaque

50. Many organisms have genome projects that have either been completed or will be completed shortly, including • : • Humans • Neanderthal • Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium • Common House Mouse • Brown Rat • Common Chimpanzee • Rhesus Monkey • Domestic Chicken • Domestic Cat • Domestic Dog • Common fruit fly • Baker's yeast