Genetics Engineering, a gift of science to humanity..

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"Genetic engineering the development and application of scientific methods, procedures, and technologies that permit direct manipulation of genetic material in order to alter the hereditary traits of a cell, organism, or population.
A technique that produces unlimited amounts of otherwise unavailable or scarce biological product by introducing DNA isolated from animals or plants into bacteria and then harvesting the product from a bacterial colony, as human insulin produced in bacteria by the human insulin gene".source

Genetic engineering to me is all the technologies involved in manipulating an organism gene, changing its genetic build up of cells and introducing one or more new traits that are found in similar organisms.

Some plants that enjoys resistance to some insects, tolerate some herbicides, and crops with improved oil content are all partakers of this genetically engineered technology.

DNA is responsible for all action of an organism, for example, in a human body; its responsible for the color of the eye, hair, height and so on.
Genetic engineering can also be seen or applicable in, animal husbandry, medicine, and agriculture.

With this form of engineering, many crops species have developed immunity to most lethal diseases.
Genetic engineering has also helped to increase yields at the farm.

Today, wide-ranging crop species like wheat are genetically modified to achieve high immunity, high nutritive value, and faster and higher productivity.

These days, more and more countries are embracing genetically engineered crops to fight scarcity of food, offer highly nutritious foods, and grow and cultivate crops that are immune to various diseases and pests.

Genetic engineering, in many ways, has heralded an age of agricultural revolution, which many hope will help wipe out malnutrition and starvation from agricultural world.

The main concept of genetic engineering

DNA

What is DNA?
DNA is the main component for life. Any molecule found in the nucleus of any cell is known as DNA, and it has 4 subunits represented by the letters A, T, G, and C.

This DNA subunit is in the order of strand of holds a code of information for the cell.
As a machine is made up many parts, the genetic language uses 4 letters to spell out the instructions for how to make the proteins an organism will need to grow and live.

Genes are the small segments of DNA. And each holds the instruction or what it needs to produce a single protein.
An organism may have thousands of genes. Like a recipe of a particular dish

A genome is the total number of genes in am organism. A genome then is a book comprising all recipe of cooking many dishes.

PROTIEN

Why are proteins important?

As the cell is to the human body, so is the protein to the cells.
They can be part of structures (such as cell walls, organelles, etc).

They can regulate all the activities that take place in the cell or fasten the work like the enzymes, which speed-up reactions.

Everything you see in an organism is either by the direct reaction of proteins or the result of a protein action.

Where genetic engineering is applicable
The applications of this field are growing each day.
One example is the production of insulin for diabetes patients.

The field of science especially medicine is reaping the benefits of genetic engineering.

They have invested their knowledge to create human growth hormones and vaccines, changing the lives and saving many humans lives.

Gene therapy has been developed, which could possibly provide a cure for those who suffer from genetic illnesses.

As scientists successfully understand genetic engineering, they use it to resolve issues in research methods currently. Most of these are done with the help of genetically modified organisms, which can be controlled compared to the natural organism.

Pros of Genetically Modified Foods

1. Tackling and Defeating Diseases (Disease resistance)

Some of the most deadly and difficult diseases in the world, that have so resisted destruction, was one of the main reason for genetic engineering research.
Genetically modified foods have great resistance to various diseases.

Large number of genetic mutations that humans suffer from that will probably never be ended unless we actively genetically engineer and intervene the next generation to withstand these problems.

For instance, with the help of selective genetic engineering, Cystic Fibrosis, a dangerous disease for which there is no known cure, could be completely cured and prevented.

1. Getting Rid of All Illnesses in Young and Unborn Children

Children face many diseases, both in the womb and after they have been giving birth to.
In the womb, doctors can tell whether the baby is going to suffer from sickle cell anemia, for instance, or from Down s syndrome.

However, with genetic engineering, we would don't have to bother again. One of the main benefit of genetic engineering here, is that it can help cure and diseases and illness in unborn children.

All children under such therapy would be able to be born healthy and strong with no diseases or illnesses present at birth in there system. It can also be used to help people passing on terribly degenerative diseases to their children.

1. Potential to Live Longer

Human rarely live longer, in fact, our lifespan has shot up by some numbers of years.
This is possible because of the advance in medical sciences.

Yes, genetic engineering makes our time on Earth even longer than we are expected to stay. And so genetic engineering can help us adapt quicker and better in our environments.

1. Produce New Foods

Genetic engineering is not just for animals and plants but also for artificial foods.
Food that is better and able to withstand harsh temperatures can be design,

for instance, We may also be able to make our foods have a better medicinal value, thus introducing edible vaccines readily available to people all over the world for improving immunity.

1. Provide all round quality and taste

For, instance, modification makes corn sweeter and pepper spicier. In fact, genetic modification has the capability to make difficult flavor a lot palatable and appealing.

Lower risk of crop failure:
reduced risk of crop failure.

Cons of Genetically Modified Foods

1. Can bring about allergies

A research study by Brown University concluded that genetic modification normally blends proteins that are not naturally present in the organism, which can result in allergy reactions to certain groups people. In fact, some studies found out that GMOs had caused significant allergic reactions to the population. A separate research by the National Center for Health Statistics reported that food allergies in individuals under 18 years leaped from 3.4% in the year 1997-2999 to 5.1% in 2009-2011.

May lead to environmental degradation
For modified plants to grow on a modified land, the environment has to be tampered on. And these bring about damages on the soil. This is evident in the plants cross-breeding whereby weeds that are cross-bred with modified plants are reported to develop resistance to herbicides. This, eventually, calls for added modification efforts to the soil to improve its yield.

1. Bear no economic value

The fact that the modified crops take the same amount of time to mature, and same effort to cultivate and grow, they dont add any economic gain compared to traditional growing methods, so is an economic loss..

1. Causes gene escape

According to a research study by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), GMOs can transfer genes to other members of similar species or different species through a process called gene escape. This gene interaction might take place at different levels including plant, cell, gene or ecosystem. Trouble could arise if, for instance, herbicide resistant genes find way into weeds.

Process of Genetic Engineering

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1. Selection of an organism that behaves in the desired trait or gene of interest, better than the one you want to upgrade.

2. Obtain the DNA from that organism.

3. Using a process called gene cloning, one desired gene must be located and obtained from thousands of genes that were extracted.

4. The gene is carefully edited to work in a more desirable way once it is inserted inside the recipient organism.

5. The behaviour of the final product is increased or activated through the process called traditional breeding.

REFERENCE

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/what-is-genetic-engineering.php

http://www.sustainabletable.org/264/genetic-engineering

http://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/biology-and-genetics/genetics-and-genetic-engineering/genetic-engineering

@godswill