Genetic Engineering

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Genetic Engineering

• What is Genetic Engineering?

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What is Genetic Engineering?

• Basic definition genetic engineering is the
  direct manipulation of an organism's genes. 
• Genetic Engineering is useful in many fields
  including food production and medicine.
• While it seems promising, there is still a lot
  that we do not know about Genetic Engineering.

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Gregor Mendel

• Gregor Mendel lived from 1822-1884 in Brunn,
  Austria.
• He was an Augustinian Monk who taught natural
  science to high school students.

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The Father of Genetics

• Mendel was the first person to trace the
  characteristics of successive generations of
  living things.
• Mendel wondered how plants acquired atypical
  characteristics.
• Mendel performed experiments on pea plants, mice
  and ornamental plants.

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Dominance and segregation of traits

• Mendel crossed peas and mice of different
  varieties.
• Through this experiment Mendel discovered the
  phenomena of dominance and segregation.
• Dominance decides which characteristic most often
  surfaces the dominant characteristic overrides
  the recessive gene and appears in the organism.
• Segregation of genes decides which genes are
  inherited from the parents.

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Laws of Heredity

• Heredity factors do not combine they are passed
  intact
• Ex A child of parents with black and red hair
  would inherit one of the two colors not a mix of
  the two.
• Each member of the parental generation transmits
  half of its hereditary factors to each offspring
• Different sets of offspring from the same parents
  receive different sets of hereditary factors
• Ex siblings are not identical, their differences
  come from the inheritance of different genes from
  their parents.

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DNA

• Discovered in 1869
• James Watson and Francis Crick discovered that
  DNA had a double Helix form.
• Our DNA or genes decide who we are, they decide
  everything from our eye color to our shoe size.

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DNA Engineering

• We use recombinant DNA to manipulate genes.
• Recombinant DNA is taking DNA from one source and
  inserting it into an organisms DNA, giving that
  organism those characteristics.
• Ex. Inserting salmons anti-freezing genes into
  corn to allow it to survive frost.

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Process of DNA Engineering

• 1. Restriction enzymes cut DNA at their base
  parts causing sticky ends to form.
• 2. DNA ligase (linker sequences of DNA) are
  placed on the sticky ends of the DNA.
• 3. A Plasmid holding foreign DNA is inserted into
  the DNA and is connected by the ligase. (sticky
  end to sticky end)
• 4. The recombinant DNA is inserted into a
  bacterium which carries out its function inside
  the larger organism.
• 5. When the DNA becomes active it directs the
  body to construct distinct proteins which carry
  out the genes function.

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