What Are The Benefits Of Engineering Animals To Have Desired Traits?

14.3: Selective Breeding and Genetic Engineering science

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Yuba College & Butte College via ASCCC Open up Educational Resources Initiative

The development of a new crop variety is an instance of agricultural biotechnology, a range of tools that include both traditional breeding techniques and more modern lab-based methods. Traditional methods date back thousands of years, whereas biotechnology uses the tools of genetic technology developed over the final few decades.

Selective Breeding (Artificial Choice)

Nearly all the fruits and vegetables found in your local market place would not occur naturally. In fact, they exist only because of human intervention that began thousands of years ago. Humans created the vast majority of ingather species by using traditional convenance practices on naturally-occurring, wild plants. These practices rely upon selective breeding (artificial selection), human-facilitated reproduction of individuals with desirable traits. For case, loftier yield varieties were produced through selective breeding. Traditional breeding practices, although low-tech and simple to perform, have the practical result of modifying an organism's genetic information, thus producing new traits.

Selective breeding is express, even so, past the life cycle of the constitute and the genetic variants that are naturally nowadays. For example, even the fastest flowering corn variety has a generation time of 60 days (the time required for a seed to germinate, produce a mature plant, get pollinated, and ultimately produce more seeds) in perfect conditions. Each generation provides an opportunity to selectively breed individual plants and generate seeds that are slightly closer to the desired outcome (for example, producing bigger, juicier kernels). Furthermore, if no individuals happen to possess cistron variants that result in bigger, juicier kernels, it is not possible to artificially select this trait. Finally, traditional breeding shuffles all of the genes between the 2 individuals being bred, which can number into the tens of thousands (maize, for case, has 32,000 genes). When mixing such a large number of genes, the results can be unpredictable.

An interesting example is maize (corn). Biologists have discovered that maize was adult from a wild plant called teosinte. Through traditional breeding practices, humans living thousands of years ago in what is now Southern Mexico began selecting for desirable traits until they were able to transform the institute into what is now known as maize (effigy $\PageIndex{a}$). In doing so, they permanently (and unknowingly) altered its genetic instructions.

Teosinte and modern corn. The latter has much larger cobs with bigger, juicier, and yellower kernels.

Figure $\PageIndex{a}$: A wild grass called teosinte was genetically modified through selective breeding to produce what is now known as maize (corn). This process of transformation started thousands of years agone by indigenous people of what is now Mexico. Image by Nicolle Rager Fuller/National Scientific discipline Foundation (public domain).

This history of genetic modification is common to nearly all crop species. For case, cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and kale were all adult from a single species of wild mustard plant (figure $\PageIndex{b}$). Wild nightshade was the source of tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco, and potatoes, the latter developed by humans 7,000 – x,000 years ago in South America.

A wild cabbage plant has basal leaves and small, yellow flowers.

Figure $\PageIndex{b}$:Brassica oleracea is a plant in the mustard family and is known as wild cabbage. From it were developed many familiar crops, such as cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and of course, cabbage. Epitome by Kulac (CC-BY-SA).

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering is the process of directly altering an organism's Deoxyribonucleic acid to produce the desired crops more than rapidly than selective breeding. Because genes can be obtained from other species or fifty-fifty synthesized in the lab, scientists are not limited past existing genetic variation within a crop species (or closely related species with which they can be crossed). This broadens the possible traits that can be added to crops. Modern genetic applied science is more precise than selective convenance in the sense that biologists can modify but a unmarried gene. As well, genetic engineering science tin can innovate a gene between 2 distantly-related species, such as inserting a bacterial gene into a plant (effigy $\PageIndex{c}$).

Comparison of traditional plant breeding and genetic engineering

Figure $\PageIndex{c}$:Both selective (traditional) breeding and modern genetic engineering produce genetic modifications. Genetic engineering allows for fewer and more precise genetic modifications. The traditional plant breeding procedure introduces a number of genes into the plant. These genes may include the gene responsible for the desired characteristic, every bit well every bit genes responsible for unwanted characteristics. In traditional breeding, the donor diverseness DNA strand (A) and recipient diverseness Deoxyribonucleic acid strand (C) are combined to produce the new variety DNA strand. The donor DNA strand contains a portion of an organism's entire genome, including the desired gene (B). In the new diverseness Deoxyribonucleic acid strand, many genes are transferred with the desired gene. Genetic engineering enables the introduction into the plant of the specific gene or genes responsible for the characteristics of interest. By narrowing the introduction to one of a few identified genes, scientists can introduce the desired characteristic without as well introducing genes responsible for unwanted characteristics. In genetic applied science, the desired gene (B) is copied from the donor organism's genome (A). The desired gene from the donor organism Deoxyribonucleic acid strand and the recipient multifariousness Dna strand (C) are combined to produce the new variety DNA strand. Only the desired cistron is transferred to a location in the recipient genome. Modified from Michael J. Ermarth/FDA (public domain).

Genetically modified organisms(GMOs) are those that accept had their DNA altered through genetic engineering. Genetically modified crops are sometimes chosen genetically engineered (GE) crops.Transgenic organisms are a type of genetically modified organism that contains genes from a different species. Considering they contain unique combinations of genes and are non restricted to the laboratory, transgenic plants and other GMOs are closely monitored by authorities agencies to ensure that they are fit for human being consumption and do not endanger other plant and fauna life. Because these foreign genes (transgenes) can spread to other species in the environment, particularly in the pollen and seeds of plants, all-encompassing testing is required to ensure ecological stability.

How to Genetically Modify Plant Cells

DNA can be inserted into plant cells through diverse techniques. For instance, afactor gunpropels DNA bound to gilded particles into found cells. (Dna is negatively charge and clings to positively charged gold.) A more traditional arroyo employs the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens (figure $\PageIndex{d}$). Commonly, this bacterium causes crown gall disease in plants past inserting a circular piece of DNA, called the Ti plasmid, into institute cells. This Dna incorporates into establish chromosomes, giving them genes to produce the gall (figure $\PageIndex{e}$), which provides a home for the bacterial pathogen.

A smaller oval cell (Agrobacterium) inserts T-DNA into a larger square cell (plant).

Figure $\PageIndex{d}$: An Agrobacterium tumefacienscell (A) inserts the Ti plasmid (C), which contains T-Dna (a) into a plant prison cell (D). The T-DNA somewhen enters the establish nucleus (G), where the plant Deoxyribonucleic acid is stored. Image past Chandres (CC-Past-SA).

A tree with spherical growths coming out of the bottom of the trunk

Effigy $\PageIndex{e}$: A crown gall caused byAgrobacterium tumefaciens. This bacterium inserts DNA into plant cells, which causes them to produce the crown gall. This process tin be adjusted by scientists to insert genes that lawmaking for desirable traits into ingather species. Epitome by Scott Nelson (public domain).

Scientists alters the process past whichAgrobacteriuminfects and genetically change plant cells to produce genetically modified plants with agriculturally benign traits as follows (figure $\PageIndex{f}$):

T-Dna, which codes for the crown gall is removed from the Ti plasmid, and genes for desired traits are added.
The modified plasmid is then added dorsum to Agrobacterium.
Agrobacterium infects undifferentiated establish cells (stem cells that can develop into any office of the found; effigy $\PageIndex{m}$).
The modified plant cells are given hormones to produce the entire establish.

Agrobacterium inserts a modified Ti plasmid into a plant cell to make a transgenic plant

Effigy $\PageIndex{f}$: The process of producing a transgenic establish usingAgrobacterium. The Ti plasmid was engineered to include the gene of interest and marker gene, which will later indicate which cells are transgenic. A rectangle represents Agrobacterium . Information technology contains regular bacterial DNA and the Ti plasmid, represented by a circumvolve. The T-DNA (which provides instructors for producing a crown gall) is removed, and a transgene (gene of interest) and maker gene are inserted instead. The factor of interest is colored light-green, and the marker cistron (for resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin) is colored blueish. Next, plant cells are infected with Agrobacterium . The bacterial prison cell inserts the Ti plasmid into a polyhedral plant cell. The transgene is transferred to the plant cell nucleus, which contains regular plant DNA. Side by side, the found cells with the gene of interest are selected and immune them to divide. This is washed past culturing the plant cells on kanamycin media in a petri dish. Calluses, clusters of undifferentiated establish cells, are produced. Finally, hormones are applied to induce shoot and root growth. An arrow points from the petri dish to a potted transgenic plant. Image by Melissa Ha (CC-By).

Green blobs of plant cells in a shallow dish

Figure $\PageIndex{g}$: Individual found cells are commencement genetically engineered withAgrobacterium. They so grow into calluses (blobs of undifferentiated establish cells) and are given hormones to induce root and shoot development. Because all the cells in the plant that eventually grows descended from a single genetically engineered cell, the entire plant is transgenic. Image by Igge (CC-BY-SA).

Examples of Genetically Modified Crops

Many genetically modified crops take been approved in the U.S. and produce our foods. The first genetically modified organism approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994 wasFlavr Savr™ tomatoes, which have a longer shelf life (delayed rotting) because a gene responsible for breaking down cells in inhibited. Flavr Savr tomatoes are genetically modified (because their Deoxyribonucleic acid has been altered) but not trasgenic (because they exercise not comprise genes from another species). The Flavr Savr tomato did not successfully stay in the marketplace because of bug maintaining and shipping the crop.Golden riceproduces β-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A (figure $\PageIndex{h}$; β-carotene is as well in high concentrations in carrots, sweetness potatoes, and cantaloupe, giving them their orange colour.)Roundup Ready® corn, cotton, and soybeans are resistant to this common herbicide, making it easier to uniformly spray it in a field to kill the weeds without harming the crops (figure $\PageIndex{i}$).

A bowl of regular rice and a bowl of golden rice, which is a orange-yellow color

Figure $\PageIndex{h}$: Golden rice has an orangish-xanthous color because it contains up to 35 μg β-carotene (a precursor to vitamin A) per gram of rice, which could prevent millions of cases of blindness worldwide. Paradigm by International Rice Research Institute (CC-Past).

Jugs of Roundup weed and grass killer on a store shelf

Figure $\PageIndex{i}$: Roundup is a common herbicide. Roundup Ready® plants are genetically modified to resist roundup, significant the herbicide does not impale them. This allows farmers to uniformly spray Roundup, killing weeds without harming the crops. Epitome by Mike Mozart (CC-By).

Crops take besides been engineered to produce insecticides. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacterium that produces protein crystals that are toxic to many insect species that feed on plants. Insects that have eaten Bt toxin stop feeding on the plants within a few hours. After the toxin is activated in the intestines of the insects, death occurs inside a couple of days. The gene to produceBt toxinhas been added to many crops including corn (figure $\PageIndex{j}$), potatoes, and cotton wool, providing plants with defense against insects.

DNA from Bacillus thuringiensis, a rod-shaped bacterium, is transferred to a corn plant

Figure $\PageIndex{j}$: Genetic engineering to produce Bt corn. The factor fromBacillus thuringiensisthat produces Bt toxin is removed and inserted into the corn plant. The Bt corn now produces the insecticide (Bt toxin) and tin can defend itself against pests. Prototype by FDA (public domain).

Genetically modified foods are widespread in the U.s.a.. For example, 94% of soy crops were genetically modified for herbicide resistance in 2020. Likewise, viii% of cotton and 10% of corn crops were modified for herbicide resistance in addition to the 83% of cotton wool and 79% of corn crops that were genetically modified in multiple ways.

Genetically modified animals take recently entered the market as well.AquaAdvantage® salmonare modified to grow more chop-chop and were canonical in Nov of 2015. However, as of March 2021, they have all the same not been sold due to legal challenges. In 2020, the FDA canonical GalSafe™ pigs for medicine and food product. These pigs lack a molecule on the outside of their cells that cause allergies in some people.

Advantages of Genetically Modified Crops

Advances in biotechnology may provide consumers with foods that are nutritionally-enriched, longer-lasting, or that contain lower levels of certain naturally occurring toxins nowadays in some food plants. For example, researchers are using biotechnology to try to reduce saturated fats in cooking oils and reduce allergens in foods. Whether these benefits will reach the people who need them virtually remains to be seen. While cultivating gold rice could address vitamin A deficiency in millions of people, it has non historically been attainable to these people because information technology is patented and expensive. Similarly, genetically modified seeds could increase the income of impoverished farmers if they were available at low or no price, just this is not always the example.

Rainbow and SunUp papayas are a success story of how genetically modified crops tin do good small-scale farmers and the economy in general. In the early 1990s, an emerging affliction was destroying Hawaii'southward production of papaya and threatening to decimate the $eleven-million industry (effigy $\PageIndex{k}$). Fortunately, a man named Dennis Gonsalves (effigy $\PageIndex{l}$), who was raised on a sugar plantation and then became a establish physiologist at Cornell University, would develop papaya plants genetically engineered to resist the mortiferous virus. By the end of the decade, the Hawaiian papaya industry and the livelihoods of many farmers were saved thanks to the costless distribution of Dr. Gonsalves'due south seeds.

A papaya plant with yellow, curled leaves (left) and a papaya with dark green "bulls eyes" on it, showing symptoms of papaya ringspot virus.

Figure $\PageIndex{one thousand}$: The symptoms of papaya ringspot virus are shown on the tree (a) and fruit (b). Image past APS (public domain).

Dennis Gonsalves

Figure $\PageIndex{50}$: Dennis Gonsalves genetically engineered papayas to resist the ringspot virus. Image by ARS USDA (public domain).

The issue of genetically modified crops on the environment depends on the specific genetic modification and which agricultural practices it promotes. For instance, Bt crops produce their own insecticides such that external awarding of these chemicals is unnecessary, reducing the negative impacts of industrial agriculture. Ongoing research is exploring whether crops can be engineered to gear up nitrogen in the atmosphere (equally some bacteria do) rather than relying on ammonium, nitrites, and nitrates in the soil. If these crops were successfully engineered, they could reduce synthetic fertilizer application and minimize food runoff that leads to eutrophication.

Genetically modified crops may have the potential to conserve natural resource, enable animals to more effectively use nutrients nowadays in feed, and assist meet the increasing world food and land demands. In practice, however, countries that use genetically modified crops compared to those that do not just enjoy a slight (or nonexistent) increment in yield.

Disadvantages of Genetically Modified Crops

Social Concerns

Intellectual property rights are one of the important factors in the current fence on genetically modified crops. Genetically modified crops can exist patented by agribusinesses, which tin atomic number 82 to them decision-making and potentially exploiting agricultural markets. Some charge companies, such as Monsanto, of allegedly controlling seed production and pricing, much to the detriment of farmers (figure $\PageIndex{g}$).

A group of protesters. One holds a stop sign that says "Stop Monsanto".

Figure $\PageIndex{chiliad}$: Protesters in Washington D.C. oppose genetically modified organisms and Monsanto specifically. Prototype cropped from Sarah Stierch (CC-Past).

Environmental Concerns

Genetically modified crops present several environmental concerns. Monoculture farming already reduces biodiversity, and cultivating genetically modified crops, for which private plants are quite similar genetically, exacerbates this. The use of Roundup Ready® crops naturally encourages widespread herbicide apply, which could unintentionally impale nearby native plants. This practice would besides increase herbicide residues on produce. While Bt crops are beneficial in the sense that they do not crave external insecticide application, but Bt toxin is spread in their pollen. An early on study establish that Bt corn pollen may be harmful to monarch caterpillars (figure $\PageIndex{north}$), only simply at concentrations that are seldom reached in nature. Follow-up studies found that most of Bt corn grown did not harm monarchs; nonetheless, the 1 strain of Bt corn did was consequently removed from the market.

A yellow and white caterpillar eating a leaf

Effigy $\PageIndex{n}$:An early written report suggested that pollen containing Bt toxin can impairment beneficial and native insects, like this monarch caterpillar. Notwithstanding, without Bt crops, farmers are more likely to spray insecticides, circulating more harmful chemicals than pollen from Bt crops does. Image by Judy Gallagher (CC-BY).

Through interbreeding, or hybridization, genetically modified crops might share their transgenes with wild relatives. This could affect the genetics of those wild relatives and have unforeseen consequences on their populations and could even have implications for the larger ecosystem. For example, if a gene engineered to confer herbicide resistance were to pass from a genetically modified crop to a wild relative, it might transform the wild species into a super weed – a species that could not be controlled by herbicide. Its rampant growth could then displace other wild species and the wildlife that depends on information technology, thus inflecting ecological damage.

Not only could escaped genes alter weedy species, but they could also enter populations of native species. This could make some native species better competitors than they were previously, disrupting ecosystem dynamics. (They could potentially outcompete other native species with which they would otherwise coexist.)

While there is evidence of genetic transfer between genetically modified crops and wild relatives, there is not yet testify of ecological impairment from that transfer. Clearly, continued monitoring, especially for newly-developed crops, is warranted.

The escape of genetically modified animals has potential to disrupt ecosystems equally well. For example, if AquaAdvantage salmon were to escape into natural ecosystem, equally farmed fish ofttimes practice, they could outcompete native salmon, including endangered species. Their genetic modification, which facilitates rapid growth, could outcome in a competitive advantage.

Health Concerns

In add-on to ecology risks, some people are concerned about potential health risks of genetically modified crops considering they feel that genetic modification alters the intrinsic properties, or essence, of an organism. As discussed in a higher place, yet, information technology is known that both traditional breeding practices and modernistic genetic engineering produce permanent genetic changes. Furthermore, selective convenance actually has a larger and more unpredictable touch on on a species'due south genetics because of its comparably crude nature.

To address these concerns (and others), the United states of america National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a comprehensive, 500-page report in 2016 that summarized the current scientific noesis regarding genetically modified crops. The report, titled Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects, reviewed more 900 research articles, in add-on to public comments and expert testimony. NASEM'southward GE Crop Written report found "no substantiated show of a deviation in risks to human health between current commercially available genetically engineered (GE) crops and conventionally bred crops, nor did information technology notice conclusive cause-and-effect bear witness of environmental problems from the GE crops." Additionally, the Un's Nutrient and Agriculture Organization has ended that risks to man and animal health from the use of GMOs are negligible. The scientific consensus on genetically modified crops is quite articulate: they are prophylactic for human being consumption.

The potential of genetically modified crops to be allergenic is one of the potential adverse health effects, and it should proceed to be studied, especially because some scientific evidence indicates that animals fed genetically modified crops accept been harmed. NASEM'due south GE Crop Written report concluded that when developing new crops, information technology is the product that should be studied for potential wellness and ecology risks, not the process that accomplished that production. What this means is, because both traditional breeding practices and modern genetic applied science produce new traits through genetic modification, they both present potential risks. Thus, for the safe of the environment and human health, both should be adequately studied.

Are Genetically Modified Crops the Solution We Demand?

Significant resources, both financial and intellectual, take been allocated to answering the question: are genetically modified crops safe for human consumption? After many hundreds of scientific studies, the answer is aye. But a significant question still remains: are they necessary? Certainly, such equally in instances like Hawaii's papaya, which were threatened with eradication due to an aggressive disease, genetic engineering was a quick and effective solution that would have been extremely hard, if not impossible, to solve using traditional breeding practices.

Yet, in many cases, the early promises of genetically engineered crops – that they would improve nutritional quality of foods, confer affliction resistance, and provide unparalleled advances in ingather yields – have largely failed to come to fruition. NASEM's GE Crop Written report states that while genetically modified crops accept resulted in the reduction of agricultural loss from pests, reduced pesticide utilize, and reduced rates of injury from insecticides for farm workers, they accept not increased the rate at which crop yields are advancing when compared to non-GE crops. Additionally, while in that location are some notable exceptions like golden rice or virus-resistant papayas, very few genetically engineered crops accept been produced to increase nutritional capacity or to forbid plant illness that tin devastate a farmer's income and reduce food security. The vast majority of genetically modified crops are developed for but two purposes: to introduce herbicide resistance or pest resistance. Genetically modified crops are full-bodied in developed countries, and their availability in developing countries, where they are perhaps well-nigh needed, is limited (figure $\PageIndex{o}$).

Line graph of the area of land used for genetically engineered crops in front of a world map marking 28 countries where these crops are used.

Figure $\PageIndex{o}$:Global area of genetically modified crops in millions of hectares 1996–2015. Overall, the hectares of genetically modified crops has increased, and in 2011, developing countries surpassed industrial countries. By 2015, out of the 28 countries that grew biotech crops, 20 were developing, and only eight were developed countries. Latin American, African, and Asian farmers together grew 97.i million hectares (54%) of the global 179.vii million biotech hectares, whereas industrial countries just planted 83 million hectares or 46%. Image and caption (modified) from Taheri, F., Azadi, H., & D'Haese, M. (2017). A Globe without Hunger: Organic or GM Crops? Sustainability , 9 (four), 580. doi:10.3390/su9040580. (CC-By)

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