Applied Genetics

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Applied Genetics

• Selective Breeding and Genetic Engineering

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Selective Breeding

• crossing of plants or animals that have
  desirable traits to produce offspring with those
  traits
• Increased strength
• Leaner meat (less fat)
• Disease resistance
• Larger grain/fruit
• Better taste

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hybridization

• crossing two organisms (same genus/species,
  kind) with variations of particular trait(s) to
  produce offspring with a mixture of the trait(s)

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• Offspring inherits traits of both parents
• Donkey X horse mule
• Modern grains corn, wheat
• Ancient wild wheat X wild goat grass nutritious
  hybrid wheat used for bread

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• The greater the difference between kinds
  (genus/species) being hybridized, the more likely
  the hybrid will be sterile

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Inbreeding

• crossing 2 organisms that have the same or
  similar trait(s) to produce animals with the same
  trait(s)

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• Idea is to preserve the desirable traits
• Organisms are genetically similar and can lead to
  negative consequences

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• Increased chances of inheriting disorders
• Increased chances of contracting certain diseases
• Decreased ability to adapt to environmental
  changes

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Weird hybrids

• liger cross between lion
• (father) and tiger (mother)

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Weird hybrids

• Tigon cross between male tiger and female lion

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• Beefalo/cattalo bison x cow

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• Hinny
• Female donkey x male horse

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Cama male camel x female llama

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Genetic Engineering

• Process in which genes (sections of DNA) are
  taken from one organism and transferred to another

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Recombinant DNA

• Section of DNA is separated from strand of one
  organism
• This is spliced into the DNA of another organism

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• DNA is now combined
• Modified DNA will cause cells to carryout
  processes in a different way

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Products resulting from genetic engineering

• Medicine
• Insulin, human growth hormone (produced by
  altered bacteria)
• Hepatitis B vaccine (produced by altered yeast
  cells)

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• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)
• Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEO)
• Transgenic crops
• GM foods
• Transgenic animals
• Much of these are used in agriculture

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transgenic goats (spider genes for web silk
protein) (Nexia Biotechnologies) Used to
manufacture BioSteel Protexia

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Agricultural uses

• Herbicide-tolerant crops
• Insecticidal crops
• Better taste, texture, longer shelf-life, larger
  size, better suited for mechanical harvesting

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Potential problems

• Cross-pollination of GM crops to wild varieties
  can cause weeds to become herbicide resistant
• Insects may become quickly resistant to
  insecticides because of exposure to GM crops

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• Predators that eat insects who have eaten GM
  crops can be affected in unknown ways
• People who eat GM crops can be affected in
  unknown ways
• Toxic effects
• Pathogenic effects
• Allergic reactions
• Resistance to antibiotics

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Terminator genes

• Plants have been developed that have a trait that
  kills developing embryos in seeds so that seeds
  from crops cannot be saved planted the
  following season

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Warnings

• Genes are now known to control more than one
  trait
• By altering/changing a single gene, multiple
  traits may be changed in ways we cant predict
• Human genes are only a small percentage of the
  information contained in DNA (5 or less)we
  dont know what most of the rest does

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• Humans have only 300 more genes than what are
  also found in mice
• This tells me genes cant possibly explain all
  of what makes us what we are.
• Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics
  (Maryland firm that led one of the mapping teams
  for the Human Genome Project)

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The Future.

• Chimera organism or component composed of
  different genetic material

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• So far
• Pigs with human blood
• Mice with human brain cells
• Sheep with human tissues in hearts livers
• Fusion of human rabbit bio-matter produced
  chimeric embryos