Genetic Engineering Essay Research Paper GENETIC ENGINEERINGPURPOSE

Genetic Engineering Essay, Research Paper

GENETIC ENGINEERING

PURPOSE: To better understand how genetic engineering works

and where it is going in the future

I. Definition

II. DNA

A. Definition

B. Chromosomes

C. Mutations

III. History

A. Gregor Mendel

B. DNA debate

IV. Mapping

A. Kinds of DNA

B. Humans Genome Project

C. DNA fingerprinting

V. Splicing

A. Recombining DNA

a. Problems

b. Rules and regulations

B. Cell fusion

C. Overlapping method

VI. Future

A. New antibodies

B. Cloning

GENETIC ENGINEERING

“Life is beginning to cease to be a mystery and becoming practically like a cryptogram, a puzzle, a working model that can sooner or later be made.” 1 This describes what happened to the mystery of life after the new science of genetic engineering. We can cure diseases, make bigger tomatoes, and soon, we will even be able to decide how our children will look. Amazing, isn’t it. That’s why I chose genetic engineering as my topic.

What is genetic engineering. It’s any manipulation or artificial modification of the process of heredity and reproduction. 2 This just means that it is any changing of DNA, the basic building block of all life on our planet, from viruses to dinosaurs. Why would we want to change the DNA of organisms. Should we really be tampering with billions of years of progress.

What are some real life uses of genetic engineering. First, we could find out more about the origin of life on earth. Next, there is a worldwide overpopulation problem. With genetic engineering, we could help the dilemma just by growing larger fruits and vegetables, or even larger cows. Another option is to go right to the source of the problem and alter women’s DNA so they could only have one baby in their lifetime. This can be done now, but it is not ethically accepted. Also, it will help us better understand where life on earth is going. How. Simply because we will have control of all life on the planet. Some people are wary of this idea, that’s why there are laws against cloning humans and strengthening viruses.

Genetic engineering will also allow us to cure various diseases; we have already found the cause of sixty percent of cancer, now it’s just a matter of using that knowledge to make a cure. 3 Public health standards will be much higher once we prefect recombinant DNA techniques. One vaccination is all that will be needed for an entire lifetime. Also, gene therapy will be used to cure almost any disease, not rest or other time consuming treatments. Agriculture will be a more exact science. Livestock will give us more milk, meat, and other products. We will be able to make much larger, healthier fruits and vegetables and need only one serving of fruits, vegetables, and grain a day.

The basis of all genetics is DNA. A molecule so small that it can’t be seen but with the best scanning electron microscope. Yet, it is huge in comparison with other molecules. DNA is found in every cell in your body except red blood cells, which have no nucleus. Each molecule of DNA is called a chromosome and is so long that if you unwounded it would wrap around the earth many times. How can it be so long and fit in a cell so small. It’s winded into a coil, and that coil is winded into another coil.

The actual molecule itself is shaped like a double helix, which looks like a twisted ladder. We found out it was shaped this way by using an imaging technique called x-ray crystallography. X-rays are bounced off the DNA and the way they bounce back is analyzed. 4 It’s like throwing tennis balls at someone in the dark and seeing how they bounce back to tell how they look.

Just one molecule of DNA can have thousands of genes. A gene is one pieced of DNA that controls something like hair color, height, or what diseases you’re susceptible to. Each rung of the ladder is a combination of two bases locking together. The four bases are acids and are usually represented by the letters A, T, C and G. 5 A only bonds with T, C only bonds with G. This makes DNA both incredibly simple to duplicate, but deviously complicated to understand.

Different organisms have different amounts of DNA. A virus that attacks E. coli, a bacteriophage, has only three genes, while E. coli itself has one thousand. 6 Most geneticists like to study the fruit fly because it has one gene for each piece of DNA. Humans have about 500,000 genes. 7

Chromosomes are one big molecule of DNA wrapped up neatly. Most chromosomes are “X” shaped. Each also has an exact duplicate, this is another way DNA minimizes the number of mutations. Many animals and even a few bacteria have more chromosomes than we do. Monkeys have twenty-seven pairs, cows have thirty pairs, and even onions have eight pairs of chromosomes. 8 It’s the quality, not the quantity of chromosomes.

How are all those A’s, T’s, C’s, and G’s used to describe how to make a virus, cow, or even a human. Each three bases, like CTG or AAC spells out a different amino acid. When you string millions of these acids together, you get a cell. However, people have different kinds of cells, like brain cells, heart cells, or skin cells, how does DNA know how to make the different kinds. Ou

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