Nowadays the internet and media have been bombarding us with shocking news about Genetic Engineering Examples of foods, and we rarely hear any positive news about this exciting topic. Below you will find a brief description of the 22 genetic Engineering Examples, most of which you may have never heard of. There are of course many others, but I think that is enough.
Genetic engineering is the process of changing or selecting the genetic material of an organism so that the organism has specific characteristics.
- 1 Genetic Engineering Examples
- 1.1 1. Cloning
- 1.2 2. Golden rice
- 1.3 3. Glowing Kitten
- 1.4 4. Pesticide-resistant rapeseed plants
- 1.5 5. Purple tomatoes
- 1.6 6. Cows with less gas
- 1.7 7. Anti-pollution plant
- 1.8 8. Fast Growing trees
- 1.9 9. Tomatoes
- 1.10 10. Fast Growing Salmon
- 1.11 11. Insecticide Corn
- 1.12 12. Vaccine for Banana,s
- 1.13 13. Onions won’t make you cry
- 1.14 14. Soybean oil
- 1.15 15. Arctic apple
- 1.16 16. Abiotic stress
- 1.17 17. Medical Eggs
- 1.18 18. Western corn rootworm
- 1.19 19. Mouse-ear cress
- 1.20 20. Goats with Spider Genes
- 1.21 21. Less Horny Cows
- 1.22 22. Scorpion Cabbages
- 1.23 Share this:
Genetic Engineering Examples
One of the most controversial uses of genetic engineering is the cloning or production of copies of genetically identical organisms. Although the ethical issues of cloning caused heated debates, scientists cloned the first sheep (called Dolly) in 1996.
2. Golden rice
On July 31, 2000, Ingo Potrykus appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The Swiss scientist and his German colleague Peter Beyer produced rice that, unlike other rice, also contains provitamins A. This vitamin deficiency is particularly harmful to the poorest people, estimated annually.
It can cause 250,000-500,000 children to be blind. Every year, 2 million people die from other reasons related to lack. So far, measures to take vitamin supplements have not yet reached poor countries. Due to its colour, the product was first named Golden Rice and remains unchanged today.
After completing a large number of trials, researchers at the Philippine International Rice Research Institute have shown that even small amounts of rice are sufficient and absolutely safe. Unfortunately, due in part to the destruction of “green” activists, rice has not yet reached its target group.
We should also mention the existence of genetically modified rice produced in 2011, which is four times more iron than ordinary rice, so it can save more lives.
3. Glowing Kitten
This sounds strange, but in 2007, South Korean scientists changed the DNA of the kitten to make its fur shine in the dark, and then cloned other cats from it, becoming the world’s first glowing cat.
4. Pesticide-resistant rapeseed plants
Rapeseed is a flowering plant used to make certain types of vegetable oils. Genetic engineering allows these plants to resist certain types of pesticides, so when the field is treated to remove pests, the plants will remain unobstructed.
5. Purple tomatoes
In 2008, a small UK research team published a study describing how they transferred a gene from a decorative plant to a tomato to produce anthocyanins and turn the tomatoes into dark blue. They later tested it on mice and found that it prevented them from getting cancer.
These tomatoes cannot be purchased because of their GMO status, but you can buy similar dark blue tomatoes, which is the result of complex interspecific hybridization by Italian scientists. Producing such tomatoes seems to cause competition among growers. For example, in 2012, Israelis announced that they had defeated the Italians by introducing a new species called Black Galaxy to the market.
6. Cows with less gas
Methane is produced by the flatulence of cattle, which is an important cause of global warming. Cows with a fart below average have been produced to counter the harmful effects that bovine flatulence may have on the environment.
7. Anti-pollution plant
Popular developed by scientists at the University of Washington can absorb contaminated water through the roots and clean it before it is released back into the air. These plants are many times more efficient at cleaning certain contaminants than conventional poplars.
8. Fast Growing trees
The demand for trees can be met by trees that grow faster than average. Genetic engineering has produced trees that are resistant to biological attacks, grow faster and stronger, and create better wood than genetically modified trees.
Tomatoes can be made bigger and more robust after genetic modification. These products can produce tomatoes that can be kept fresh for longer, transported away from where they grow, and harvested at the same time, rather than harvesting only a portion of the field at each harvest.
10. Fast Growing Salmon
The squid does not produce growth hormone throughout the year, so scientists have begun to study genetic engineering and have found a solution: this improved method can make carp grow twice as fast as non-salmon.
11. Insecticide Corn
Why not genetically engineer your own pest-killing crops instead of spraying pesticides on plants? Corn is developed through genetic engineering and produces toxins that kill insects. Although this corn may also harm beneficial insects, such as butterflies, proponents say the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
12. Vaccine for Banana,s
Bananas are genetically engineered to provide vaccines for diseases such as cholera and hepatitis. Just like a needle vaccine, people who eat them produce anti-disease antibodies that make them immune to the disease.
13. Onions won’t make you cry
In 2008, a New Zealand research team led by Colin Eady produced an onion that won’t make you cry when you cut it. Interestingly, inserting a single gene, downregulating the activity of onion enzymes, making your eyes water, has managed to achieve two things: first, onions no longer water your eyes, and secondly, they now have more Healthy and beneficial sulphur contains substances other than ordinary onions.
14. Soybean oil
Two US companies have significantly improved soybean cooking oil through genetic modification. Plenish oil sold by DuPont uses gene silencing to produce oils containing low levels of polyunsaturated fats and high levels of monounsaturated fats, while saturated fatty acids are reduced by 20%.
This oil has high stability during the baking process, which means that it does not require a hydrogenation chemical process, which produces unwanted trans fats. Monsanto has a similar vascular system-friendly oil with two inserted genes that produce omega-3 fatty acids. Rapeseed is also close to being produced by BASF, which contains five genes isolated from seaweed. This is the first product since the Flavr Savr tomato was directly used by consumers in 1994.
15. Arctic apple
If cut in half, the apple will turn brown, which is why its slices are often soaked in antioxidants to prevent this from happening. In 2012, Canadian scientists began publishing two popular apple varieties, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith and plan to launch the Gala and Fuji varieties, all of which are named after the Arctic Apple brand.
Non-browning features can already be found in some apple varieties, such as the latest Slovenian variety Majda, but none of them have received strong commercial recognition. The purpose of this study was to prevent the most popular varieties from turning brown. The same principle applies to these apples and the aforementioned onions: it is not about adding genes but about downregulating existing genes.
16. Abiotic stress
To date, the field has been dominated by genetically modified species that are resistant to pests and specific herbicides, and it appears that they will soon be added to species that are resistant to abiotic stress. Frost-resistant eucalyptus has been produced and used in the paper industry.
As for the main crops, species that have been successfully grown with smaller doses of nitrogen and phosphorus have been tested. In addition, the first batch of drought-tolerant species are entering the market and more adaptable to rice in flooded fields. These features will make environmentally friendly production easier to adapt to extreme weather conditions.
17. Medical Eggs
Although all the cholesterol has erupted over the years, it turns out that eggs are still the closest thing to our comprehensive diet. Eggs are now considered to be another way to make medicines for humans. In this case, the idea is to modify the hen to produce eggs, in which half of the protein in the egg white is replaced by a protein that fights skin cancer. But we should not eat eggs in order to work, they must be processed into drugs.
The main benefit of this is the cheap and easy mass-production of the medicine, which would take much longer and cost much more to synthesize. The kicker is that human genes would have to be spliced into the poultry; technically making them another kind of chimera.
18. Western corn rootworm
The genetically modified species that dominate the field are mainly used to promote production. This includes species that are resistant to harmful insects such as European corn borer and western corn rootworm. The latter was imported from the United States and was inflicted by two other rootworms that penetrated into the stem and caused the crop to bend. Since there are no resistant species in Slovenia, this problem is being solved through crop rotation. The same applies to cotton, and the new species allows spraying to be reduced by 80%.
19. Mouse-ear cress
This is a small invasive species and we know very little about its genes. This small plant helps us understand the genetic properties of many plant features associated with drought, low nitrogen demand, low temperature and freezing, high temperatures, light (eg shade tolerance), tolerance to UV radiation, photosynthesis Activity, low pH and aluminum content soil, high pH, growth rate, flowering stage, ripening greening, plant structure, fertility, organ size, branching form, stem width, ozone, high carbon dioxide, high nitrogen, carbon/nitrogen , seed morphology, bio-resistance, and seed oil, seed protein, lignin and sterol composition. After the genes of these characteristics are found in the mouse-ear cress, they can be used to modify the cultivar.
20. Goats with Spider Genes
We may all be familiar with spider pigs in comic books, but spider goats? Yes, as I mentioned in other articles on this site, one of the coolest genetic engineering applications is to splicing spider genes into inconspicuous goats.
why? Ok, you may have read spider silk is a very strong substance. It is actually heavier than steel and more flexible. This makes it ideal for a wide variety of things, such as bulletproof vests, sutures and car airbags. By planting the insect itself, we get more familiar silk (production costs are still high). The cockroaches of the silkworm moth caterpillar are boiled and processed to obtain industrial quantities. As you can imagine, this is not the end of the caterpillar process, but this is how it is done.
It turns out that spiders are as difficult to cultivate as cats, and it is impractical to get enough silk from them. Synthetic efforts have also failed to produce anything commercially useful. So in 2010, the result of a clever solution was announced. What they do is splicing the spider genes into goats, so the chemical plant that makes the milk also secretes spider silk proteins. The milk can then be processed to extract silk, but it is unclear whether they can still obtain cheese from them.
21. Less Horny Cows
Scientists have not only taken the horns, but they have also taken the corners completely. Natural cattle weapons are of little use in rolling farmland in the UK. In fact, it is reported that five British people die each year from horn-related injuries.
Normally, the horns are violently removed to make it safer for workers or people who are kneeling in the fields for some reason. With some genetic editing, cows now don’t grow horns from the beginning. In 2016, five healthy cows were born and keratin genes were suppressed.
22. Scorpion Cabbages
Finally, we can end something that does not combine human genes with food. Instead, our cabbage contains a scorpion gene. The way is better! In a serious sense, pesticides are a major problem in modern agriculture. Farmers need to stop insects from eating crops for us, but spraying large amounts of pesticides on ecosystems can have a huge impact on us.
The scorpion discussed is “Androctonus australis”, a toxic scorpion comparable to the deadly Black Mamba. This creature kills a few people every year. Researchers don’t want to introduce the entire venom into the cabbage. In contrast, part of the scorpion venom is very effective against insects but not harmful to humans. The end result is a cabbage that is not destroyed by pests, that is until they are resistant to venom components, and the scorpion may not appreciate it very much.
Some of these examples show you about, genetic engineering can be a controversial science, but, it may also serve for many useful purposes.