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OMG! GMOs!. What are GMOs and how are they made?. http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/fluorescent-felines-meet-pre-plucked-chickens. Engineering E. coli to produce a foreign protein. http://radbouddigitalart.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/paint-or-bacteria/. Can bacteria produce human proteins?.
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OMG! GMOs! What are GMOs and how are they made? http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/fluorescent-felines-meet-pre-plucked-chickens
Engineering E. coli to produce a foreign protein http://radbouddigitalart.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/paint-or-bacteria/
Can bacteria produce human proteins? Human genes may be too big to fit into a plasmid Bacteria cannot splice introns! Therefore, need human genes without introns.
Synthesis of cDNA using reverse transcriptase Complementary DNA (cDNA) has no introns, and can be expressed in bacteria to make eukaryotic proteins.
Genetic engineering of animals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hepoJgGJtNc
Desirable Traits • Pest Resistance • Herbicide Tolerance • Viral Resistance • Drought Resistance • Increased Nutritional Value • Improved Fruit • Altered Ripening
Opponents argue • Creation of super pests • Creation of super weeds • Loss of biodiversity • Biotechnology companies control agriculture • Health concerns
US Approval for GM food crops • Corn • Soy • Papaya • Canola • Potato • Chicory • Rice • Squash • Sugarbeet • Tomatoes Approval does not necessarily mean these crops are distributed Database of GM crops: www.agbios.com Which foods contain GM product?
Why test for GMO’s? • Legislation • US: food labeled “GM-Free” <5% GM • EU: food labeled “GM” if >1% GM • Japan: food labeled “GM” if >5% • Export • What about unlabeled food?
Genome editing CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – Cas9 system: Genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9 (MIT) Genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9 (J Doudna)