THE GENE PLAY- GENETIC ENGINEERING
Do you ever came across the term genetic engineering or gene cloning? You have also heard about "Dolly" the successfully cloned first sheep from an adult somatic cell ,using the process of nuclear transfer or simply via genetic engineering this result was achieved. This ability has been explored and experimented in several organisms, some of which have been commercialized whereas the practical applications of some are being tested. As far as we talk about genetic engineering cloning of the genetic material was always being under the spotlight for the research purposes. Herbert Boyer & Stanley Cohen in the year 1973 created the first genetically modified organism. It was a bacterium Escherichia .coli that contained genes for antibiotic resistance. Followed by the year in 1977 Herbert Boyer created in vitro the first plasmid as cloning vector i.e.. pBR322.
What do you meant by genetic engineering?
The ability to alter the genome or a DNA by inserting or removing a segment of DNA/gene of interest/specific genome sequence. It could be the integration of foreign gene sequence from another organism to other organism or get rid of specific traits and characteristics. This is further modified for the purpose of gene mapping, gene sequencing and transforming cells. This modification and alteration of gene results in the production of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).Thus the overall alteration or modification GMOs is referred as recombination.(Recombination= combination of two gene/ DNA sequence).
As GMOs are the genetically modified organisms. The first genetically modified organism was a bacterium by Herbert Boyer and Stanley in the year 1973."How transgenic animal differ from them or it meant same as GMOs?" here comes the answer to your question, the organisms whose genome is being modified by introducing a gene from a different variety of the same species are called cisgenic organisms; whereas those having a genes from a foreign species are called transgenic organisms.
Transgenic animals are routinely used as model organism in the laboratories for biomedical research. For example the transgenic mice have been genetically modified with a green fluorescent protein.
These genetically modified rodent are generally used as an important tool for the research on human diseases as well as used for the production of human antibodies for therapeutic use.
Not only animals can be genetically modified but transgenic plants such as "BT crops" known as the pest resistance plants are also genetically modified crops {primarily for cotton and maize) exists. They are pest resistance as they contain a gene derived from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis
( gram positive , spore forming bacteria mainly found in soil) thus referred to as BT. The insertion of the gene from B. thuringiensis into the crop produces a crystal/ toxin which is insecticidal in nature those protein are called as Cry-protein. The crystallization of the insect gut leads to its ultimate death.
New DNA is obtained by either isolating or copying the gene of interest through recombinant DNA technology. The first recombinant DNA or rec DNA molecules was first made by Paul berg in 1972. He achieved so by combining the monkey virus SV40 DNA with lambda virus.
Genetic Engineering and the Medicines
Genetic engineering has produced a variety of drugs and hormones for medical use. The malfunctioning of insulin in humans leads to diabetes type I and type II. Also the number of diabetic patients are increasing rapidly due to unhealthy lifestyle. Genetic engineering has found its way out to overcome the failure of insulin in diabetic patient. "Humulin" is the first human synthesized insulin. It is a genetically modified hormone was produced in the year 1978 using E.coli. Interferon used to eliminate certain certain virus and kills cancer cells, is again an another example of genetic engineering. The human growth hormone is used to treat dwarfism and is produced through genetic engineering via bacteria and yeast. Gene therapy is the another evolving field which involves the manipulation of human genome tor treat and cure human genetic disorders. Since 1990s,gene therapy has been used in clinical trials to treat diseases like AIDS ,cystic fibrosis, High cholesterol and cancer.
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