Question

List the major areas where genetic engineering is being used in today's world. Give several examples for each area. List several products that were produced via recombinant DNA technology.

Answer 1

Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genome of an organism by application of biotechnology techniques. In this technique, the new segment of DNA of genetic material of interest is first isolated and copied using method of molecular cloning to generate or synthesize a DNA sequence and this is inserted in the genome of host cell or organism to produce genetically modified organism.

            Major areas of application of genetic engineering are agriculture, industry, research and medicine. For example:

1. Agriculture: by using genetic engineering techniques, a number of genetically modified crops are cultivated and also many organisms, like fish, are also modified by this technique to develop the desired characteristics in such organisms.

2. Industry: Genetic engineering techniques are used for various purposes in several industry, such as foods industry, biofuels industry for making of biofuels, water purification as in detection of arsenic, etc.

3. Research: Genes and their genetic information of variety of organisms are transformed into bacteria for storage, alteration and to create genetically modified bacteria.

4. Medicine: Genetic engineering techniques help in the production of various medicines and vaccines for example human growth hormones, insulin, albumin, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines etc.

List of products that were produced via recombinant DNA technology are:

Insulin, ?-interferon, Hepatitis B vaccine, Growth hormone, Erythropoetin, Tissue plasminogen activator, DNase, Factor VIII, Interleukin-2, Cellulase, Bovine growth hormone, Epidermal growth factor (EGF), Taxol, etc.