Genetic engineering is a procedure in which recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology is used to introduce wanted characters into organisms. A genetically engineered (GE) animal is one that encompasses a recombinant DNA (rDNA) concept creating a new trait. While conventional breeding approaches have long been used to create more desirable traits in animals, genetic engineering is a much more powerful method of introducing desirable traits into animals.
Supporters of GE in agriculture point to a multitude of potential advantage of engineered crops, including bigger yield, easiness of drought, reduced pesticide use, more efficient use of fertilizers, and ability to produce drugs or other useful chemicals.
While the risks of genetic engineering have sometimes been overstated, GE crops do have the potential to cause different health harms and environmental effects. For example, they may produce new allergens and toxins, spread harmful traits to weeds and non-GE crops, or hurt animals that eat them. At least one major environmental impact of genetic engineering has already reached critical proportions: ” overuse of herbicide-tolerant GE crops ” has spurred an increase in herbicide use and an epidemic of herbicide-resistant “ super-weeds,” which will lead to even more herbicide use.
Examples of GE are:
- Goats That Make a Web
One of the strongest natural materials is a stretchable spider web, it is even stronger than steel. Hypothetically, it could have varied usage – from the creation of artificial ligaments to the ropes for parachutes. If only we were able to produce it in sufficient quantities. Nexia Biotechnologies Company said it has a solution: “ goat milk contains proteins of spider web! The researchers inserted the gene from spider DNA gene into goats’ DNA in such a way that it secretes in their milk the protein for building the net. This milk can be used to produce biosteel, material with characteristics similar to spider webs”.
- Plants Fighters Against Pollution
Scientists at the University of Washington were able to create genetically engineered poplar, which is able to clean up contaminated land by absorbing contaminants from groundwater through its root system, and then through a series of chemical reactions, turning it into harmless substances stored in the roots and leaves or released in gaseous form through pores in the environment. In laboratory tests, those modified plants have been able to remove 91% of trichloroethylene (the most common groundwater contaminants) from aqueous solution. Plain poplar manages to remove only 3%. Good statistics, one must admit.
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