Question

15) Describe the two major types of genetically modified crops that are currently in use in the United States. Give an example of each of the two types

Answer 1

Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, in which the DNA has been genetically modified using recombination DNA technology and reproductive clonning.This may be to express a gene that is not native to the plant or to modify endogenous genes. The protein encoded by the gene will confer a particular trait or characteristic to that plant. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species.

In reproductive cloning, a nucleus is extracted from a cell of the individual to be cloned and is inserted into the enucleated cytoplasm of a host egg (an enucleated egg is an egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed).

Genetically modified (GM) foods were first approved for human consumption in the United States in 1994, and by 2014–15 about 90 percent of the corn, cotton, and soybeans planted in the United States was GM.

More than 90% of all soybean cotton and corn acreage in the U.S. is used to grow genetically engineered crops. Other popular and approved food crops include sugar beets, alfalfa, canola, papaya and summer squash.