Human Manipulations Of Genetic Transfer And Its Biological Implications

Genetic manipulation is a powerful tool that allows humans to selectively modify organisms. It provides the ability for humans to deliberately manipulate an organism 's’ genes in order to produce desirable traits. Genetic manipulation provides the ability for humans to decide which phenotypes to express, and which to eliminate. This typically starts with an individual organism, then goes onto eventually effect and entire species or breed.

Selective Breeding is the process through which plants and animals with certain traits are bred together to produce an offspring with desired traits. In other words, the process in which humans choose the traits which they want in a plant or animal, and they breed them hoping for a plant which can grow bigger, or maybe an animal which can be stronger. Selective Breeding is all about the inheritance of genes and alleles. Scientists may breed individuals to their desired traits, whilst also being aware of possible recessive genes. Chromosomes which carry genetic codes for an organism, determine the features and characteristics of that organism. Each organism has different features and characteristics, this is when selective breeding takes place,

Humans have been manipulating genetic transfer for over 10,000 years since our hunter- gatherer ancestors began to settle in one place and started farming and planting crops. Those humans observed and chose organisms from natural selection to select and breed organisms that showed characteristics desired by them and this began the process of selective breeding. Selective breeding favours recessive alleles that do not persist in wild populations. Selective breeding is a process of increasing the frequency of rare and recessive alleles so that they appear in homozygous form. This has the effect of eliminating the alleles for wild type from the population and the process of domestication has become irreversible. The domestic species has become dependent on humans for their survival. It is from these domestic species that humans have selected and breed favourable genetic traits for their benefit, be it higher yield in plant crops, sweeter tasting fruit, and more milk from dairy cows or ease of handling stock, selective breeding continues to be used today.

Wikipedia defines genetic modification as the “mutation, insertion or deletion of genes.” Consider that for over 14,000 years, humans have been using the practice of selective breeding by where only those organisms with desirable traits are used to breed the

Selective breeding in animals and plants is still carried out by both commercial and hobby breeders/growers. Selective breeding allows you to be able to breed/grow the exact animal/plant you want, so they can serve the purpose you want them to. Selective breeding can be used to minimise the impacts and/or treat genetic disease.

Selective breeding involves breeding organisms based on their phenotypes so that the desired traits are passed onto successive generations, these desired alleles then increase (in frequency) in the gene pool. This has a large commercial benefit as animal and crop products now contain higher quality meat, quantity of milk, quality of wool, larger fruits etc.

Genetic manipulation refers to any method used to manipulate genetic material. Genetic transfer is when genes are transferred from one organism to another, and human manipulation of genetic transfer is where humans manipulate genetic material through genetic transfer to benefit organisms. E.g. Preventing diseases being genetically inherited, improving quality of plants, and selecting preferred alleles. However, these can all come with disadvantages and there will be biological implications with each

According to Yang and Chen (2015), humans have been modifying the genomes of plants and animals for thousands of years using traditional breeding techniques. This involves selecting plants or animals with desirable traits and breeding them in hopes of acquiring certain characteristics, which become more pronounced with each generation. After thousands of years, almost every single plant and animal around the world is vastly different from its pre-domesticated state. Hence, if humans have been manipulating genes since history, then what makes a so-called “genetically modified organism (GMO)” different?

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is a chemical organism processed in a laboratory where genes from the DNA of the crops are extracted and then artificially forced into an unrelated product that, when put into the crops the farmers raise, can chemically change the makeup of the crop. The chemical makeup can be from the change in the skin color of the crop to the actual organic chemistry compound. Genetic engineering is the process of splicing the genes in the crop and taking out a certain chemical on the compound to substitute the original compound. The practice of genetic engineering has been around since 1935 when the Russian scientist Andrei Nikolaevitch Belozersky isolated pure DNA, and is being used by many farmers and large international corporations (Shireen). For example, a tomato farmer changes the genes of the tomato to prevent a beetle from eating it. However, genetically modified organisms are becoming detrimental to our bodies and health and there are ways the government can help Americans eat healthier by labeling products with genetically modified organisms.

Genetic engineering is the alteration of an organism’s genotype using recombinant DNA technology to modify an organism’s DNA to achieve desirable traits. (OpenStax 459). The main purpose however of genetic engineering is to deepen the understanding of how genetics works, as well as how it can be applied to the rest of the world. For example growing body parts on mice, or make crops resistant to pesticides, help them grow faster, make them produce faster and much more. The process of genetic engineering according to FAO Corporate Document Repository occurs in 9 steps:

Genetic engineering, also known as genetic modification, is an import, yet sometimes controversial, field of biology. The applications of genetic engineering can be found in use in numerous aspects of society, especially agriculture and medicine. Humans have been genetically modifying plants and animals for thousands of years through selective breeding, however the direct manipulation of DNA has only existed since the 1970s. One such manipulation of DNA is

Since prehistoric times, agriculture has been bred selectively in order to select for traits that would be more desirable. This type of genetic modification has proven to be quite successful and has been used for many generations. Presently scientists are genetically modifying organisms in order to produce more desirable traits. Genetically modified organisms (GMO), are organisms that have a genome that has been engineered in a laboratory in order to produce desired biological products or to express a desired physiological trait (Diaz 2014). Scientists are able to accomplish this type of genetic modification through recombinant DNA technology and reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning uses technology to produce offspring of an organism that is genetically identical to the parent. They do this by transferring a donor nucleus into the enucleated cytoplasm of the host egg (Diaz 2014). Recombinant DNA technology involves inserting one or more individual genes into the DNA of a separate species (Diaz 2014). GMOs have become widely used in many different areas of society, three of which are animals, agriculture, and for the advancement of human health. However, this scientific advancement does have disadvantages and is a highly controversial topic for many counties.

For thousands of years, humans have transformed their surroundings and neighboring organisms to suit their needs. The transformation first took place when humans spread seeds onto the earth to grow their own food, and continued when humans reached out to provide food and shelter to other animals in exchange for labor, companionship and sustenance. When early agriculture proved successful, the best and strongest animals and crops were chosen for the next generation. This was the dawn of genetic modification, and it is as old as agriculture itself.

Genetic engineering has to do with manipulating organisms and DNA to create body characteristics. The practice of genetic DNA has shown an increasing amount over the past years. The process of genetic enhancement involves manipulating organisms by using biotechnologies. The technique is by removing a DNA from one life form and transferring it to another set of traits or organism. Certain barriers are conquered, and the procedure involves changing a form of cells, resulting from an improvement or developed organism. GMO which is a (Genetic Modified Organisms) is the operation done in a laboratory where DNA genetic from one particular species or animals is directly forced into another gene from an unrelated subject of plants or even animals.

     There isn’t any background information of human genetic engineering because it is perceived as unmoral, but there are many comparable instances of altering genes. Genetic engineering is the largest food experiment in the history of the world. “More than 100 million acres of the world's most fertile farmland were planted with genetically modified crops last year, about 25 times as much as just four years earlier”(King,1999). There is a series on genetic engineering of food crops, genetic engineers are now moving genes around among plants and animals. The attempt to improve the human race genetically relates to someone creating a specialized breed of horses or dogs. “In the early decades of the 20th century, eugenics projects in the U.S. led to forced sterilization of some people who were considered to have undesirable