Download GMOs and Cloning

Biotechnology
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS
GMOs
 Genetically Manipulated (Modified)
Organisms
 Also called transgenic organisms
 Organisms whose genetic material has
been altered to include specific genes,
often from another species
Purpose of GMOs?
 Increase crop yields
 Increase shelf life
 Make disease and parasite resistant
crops
 More nutritious crops
 Others?
Flavr Savr
 1994, the first GMO food do be sold
commercially
 A tomato altered to stay fresh longer
 Contained a gene that blocked the
production of an enzyme responsible for
rotting
Golden Rice
Golden Rice
 Modified by adding genes from daffodils
and bacterium
 Modified Rice now contains Vitamin A
 Many people in developing nations rely
on rice as a major staple in their diet.
 Golden Rice provides more nutrition.
Bt Corn
 Inserted gene from the soil bacteria,
Bacillus thuringiensis
 Causes the corn crops to produce a toxin
making it resistant to insects.
Bt corn
Benefits of Bt Corn
 Reduces damage caused by the
European Corn Borer (ECB)
 Less expensive than insecticide
 Less checking for effects of ECB
 Less insecticide – better for environment
 Less fungal infections
Harmful effects of Bt corn
 May kill other insects – influence food webs
and ecosystems
 Insects may develop resistance to Bt toxin
 Which would make BT spray (insect repellent)
ineffective for human use
 Pollen may get into another crop field,
infiltrating organic crops and putting other
ecosystems in jeopardy.
Reproductive Cloning
 CLONE: genetically identical organisms or
cells derived from a single parent cell
 In adult organisms, all the cells are specialized
to do specific jobs (for example: red blood
cells, stomach cells, skin cells).
 It is very difficult to take a specialized somatic
cell and turn it back into a cell that is
unspecialized (like those in zygotes).
Animal Cloning
 In July 1996, Ian Wilmut, a Scottish
scientist, cloned the first mammal from
an adult body cell – a sheep he named
Dolly.
How did he do it?
 He first obtained an
udder cell from a Finn
Dorset sheep and
removed the nucleus
 He then obtained an egg
cell from a Poll Dorset
Sheep and removed the
nucleus from the egg
cell.
 He placed the nucleus
from the 1st cell (the Finn
Dorset cell) into the egg
cell of the Poll Dorset
 To get this new cell to
undergo cell division, he
shocked it with electricity.
He had to do this
process ~277 times until
it finally worked
 Once the cell began dividing it formed an
embryo.
 He implanted the embryo into the uterus
of a Scottish Blackface Sheep
 The clone grew in
the uterus of until it
was born.
 Dolly the sheep was
a clone of the Finn
Dorset
Sheep.
DOLLY PARTON
 Unfortunately, Dolly (the sheep!) died
prematurely at the age of 6 (half her
lifespan)
 She displayed symptoms of premature
aging, and such as arthritis and lung
disease which is present in older sheep.
 Many more species have been
successfully cloned since Dolly, including
goats, cows, mice, pigs, dogs, cats,
rabbits, horses and camels, however,
there are still many problems.
Why Clone Mammals?
 Cows that produce the most milk, hens
that lay the most eggs, Cattle that
produces the best tasting and beef can
be cloned to make more organisms with
the same desirable traits and create
more financial profits.
 If we could develop technologies to clone
organs, it could solve problems related to
lack of organ donors for sick individuals
Theraputic Cloning
 Involves stem cell research
 Aims at cell therapy – where diseased cells are
replaced with health ones.
 Human embryos are produced (in vitro) and
allowed to grow for a few days into a small ball
of the cells.
 These cells are not yet specialised (they’re
stem cells/ pluripotent)
 Stem cells can also be obtained from
umbilical cords or aborted fetuses.
 PURPOSE:
 Treat people suffereing from Parkinson’s
 Treat spinal cord injuries
 BONE MARROW – transplants for leukemia
patients
Ethics of Therapeutic
Cloning
 PRO: can cure and treat diseases with
cell therapy
Ethics of Therapeutic
Cloning
 CONS:
 Fear it can lead to reproductive cloning
 Creation and destruction of human embyros
(“playing GOD”?)
 Embryonic stem cells are capable of many
division and may turn into tumours.