The Applications of genetic engineering Are numerous. It is currently used in fields as diverse as agriculture and livestock or medicine.
Since the cloning of Dolly , A Finn Dorset sheep born in Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1996, the world began to discuss the scope, applications and implications of genetic manipulation with which a sheep had been born out of natural conditions.
All these conditions had been until that day made incomprehensible and unquestionable for the great majority of the population. Dolly showed that genetic engineering had already taken the first steps towards a future in which we now live.
Dolly was the evidence while the food industry, pharmacology industry, medicine or the environment are the realities of a science like genetic engineering.
This discipline has managed to put in our hands the possibility of altering at our whim the phenomenon of life by changing the natural characteristics of living beings and altering our perception of existence as a fact away from our control.
10 applications of genetic engineering
1- Agriculture
Cell recombination technology has succeeded in altering the genotype of plants with the aim of making them more productive, resistant to pests or more nutritious. These products are so-called GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or Transgenic .
2- Pharmaceutical industry
Genetic engineering has gained significant importance in the production of medicines. At present, plants and microorganisms that form the basis of certain drugs are being genetically modified to create better vaccines, more effective treatments, enzymes or hormones at low cost.
3- Clinical diagnosis
Medical research has received from the genetic engineering the knowledge necessary to identify genes that produce catastrophic or incurable diseases. These genes can be diagnosed early and cured or avoided, depending on the case.
4- Medicine (gene therapy)
Gene therapy is a technique that allows the isolation of healthy genes to insert directly into people who have diseases caused by genetic malformations, thus achieving effective treatments. This therapy is, perhaps, the most promising and revolutionary contribution of genetic engineering today.
Cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, cancer or Alzheimer's , Are some of the human ailments that are being effectively combated from their microcellular origin.
5- Energy production
Genetic recombination technology is having a high impact on energy production. Every year, huge amounts of biofuels are produced (from oilseed rape...), oils, alcohol Or diesel with products arising from energy crops that grow rapidly and with great resistance from genetically altered organisms.
6- Food industry
Every day in the world's supermarkets, hangers are filled with products developed from genetically altered organisms. The food industry has found in genetic engineering a way to lower costs, increase production and find new products made through genetic research.
7- Forensic investigation (the genetic fingerprint)
HE DNA Is unique and unrepeatable in every human being, is a kind of microcellular fingerprint that allows the identification of each individual. Forensic medicine has been able to identify suspects from crimes or victims from blood, hair, saliva or semen samples.
8- Anthropological research
Genetic engineering techniques have made it possible to identify individuals from ancient cultures as well as to determine types and classes of migration And, from there, to determine customs and social organization.
9- Environmental cleaning
DNA recombination technology is being used to restore contaminated environments through the use of genetically modified living organisms (microorganisms) that can produce waste degradation, Petroleum Or toxic industrial wastes.
10- Livestock
Not only vegetables can be transgenic, but also animals associated with the food industry are being genetically altered to produce larger amounts of meat, eggs or milk.
Processes have also been developed by which human genes are introduced into animals that produce milk to become"human protein factories"that are then extracted to make medicines.
More important data on genetic engineering and DNA study
What does genetic engineering do?
Genetic engineering is the development of technological tools that have enabled the control and transfer of DNA from one organism to another with the perspective of correcting those elements considered genetic defects.
Another purpose of genetic engineering is to aim at the creation of new species of animals and plants, or strains, in the case of microorganisms.
Dolly had been"created"from an adult cell, it was a clone, that is, genetic engineering had managed to make a living reproduce in a laboratory, manipulating the DNA of another living being.
Since then, genetic engineering has developed at a high rate, so much so, that today our life is surrounded by products developed from the manipulation of DNA.
What is DNA?
All living beings have been created from the reproduction of the characteristics that our parents have bequeathed us, hair, skin, face shape, even personality and character traits that come included in the"package"given to us at birth .
These characteristics are transmitted in genes, that is, the fundamental units that keep the information indispensable for any living organism to function properly; Without this information a being could, for example, be formed without lungs, be born without a hand or have a so weak that would stop beating in a few days.
Now, the genes are nothing more than the"bricks"of a great building called desoxirribunocleico acid, that is, the DNA and constitute the very basis of life.
DNA (or DNA) is nothing more than an organic compound that contains the genetic information essential for a living being to fulfill all its biological functions properly, is, in short, the basis on The one that builds life and without which existence would be inexplicable.
Now, DNA is made up of sequences of chemical compounds called nucleotides that are distributed in a specific order and in specific quantities, which give each living being originality. Even beings of the same species, will always be somehow original and unrepeatable.
These sequences are variable, but depart from a basic structure that constitutes what scientists and scientists have called: gene code or genetic code. That is, a kind of alphabet that builds life and was deciphered by American scientists Cohen And Boyer in 1973.
This discovery allowed the development of genetic engineering, which acts at the microcellular level, that is, intervening in these DNA sequences and building new forms of beings acting from the very origin of what we are.
The applications of genetic engineering are at our fingertips, although not all have passed the Ethical debate About its validity or quality. Nevertheless they have been growing of the hand of the industry that is using the technology of genetic manipulation according to their interests.
These interests are often justified by the need to improve possible failures of nature in the creation of living beings, or the need to create new beings that are able to adapt better to the times we live.
In all cases, science has blamed responsibilities for the consequences that these applications have, but it has not left them aside because scientific research has received economic support from the industry.
Otherwise, the research that has made possible the technological advances that we live would have been impossible. But this is another debate.
References
- Electronic Journal of Biotechnology (2006-2007). Genetic engineering applications in animal breeding. Valparaiso, Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Retrieved from: ejbiotechnology.info.
- Biologydiscussion (2016). Top 4 Applications of Genetic Engineering. Article Shared by Preksha Bhan Retrieved from: biologydiscussion.com.
- The Future of Human Evolution (2010). General Applications of Genetic Engineering, by: Bijay Dhungel, MSc. Retrieved from: futurehumanevolution.com.
- Journal of the UNAM. Immediate applications of genetic engineering. Retrieved from: revista.unam.mx.
- An Introduction to Genetic Engineering. Desmond S. T. Nicholl. Cambridge University Press, (2008). Retrieved from: books.google.com.