Biotechnology is the application of scientific techniques
to modify and improve plants, animals, and microor
ganisms to enhance their value
Biotechnology is the application of scientific techniques
to modify and improve plants, animals, and microor
ganisms to enhance their value. Agricultural biotech
nology is the area of biotechnology involving applica
tions to agriculture. Agricultural biotechnology has been
practiced for a long time, as people have sought to im
prove agriculturally important organisms by selection
and breeding. An example of traditional agricultural bio
technology is the development of disease-resistant wheat
varieties by cross-breeding different wheat types until
the desired disease resistance was present in a resulting
new variety.
In the 1970s, advances in the field of molecular biol
ogy provided scientists with the ability to manipulate
DNA—the chemical building blocks that specify the char
acteristics of living organisms—at the molecular level.
This technology is called genetic engineering. It also al
lows transfer of DNA between more distantly related or
ganisms than was possible with traditional breeding tech
niques. Today, this technology has reached a stage where
scientists can take one or more specific genes from nearly
any organism, including plants, animals, bacteria, or vi
ruses, and introduce those genes into another organism.
An organism that has been transformed using genetic
engineering techniques is referred to as a transgenic or
ganism, or a genetically engineered organism.
Many other terms are in popular use to describe these
aspects of today’s biotechnology. The term “genetically
modified organism” or “GMO” is widely used, although
genetic modification has been around for hundreds if
not thousands of years, since deliberate crosses of one
variety or breed with another result in offspring that are
genetically modified compared to the parents. Similarly,
foods derived from transgenic plants have been called
“GMO foods,” “GMPs” (genetically modified products),
and “biotech foods.” While some refer to foods devel
oped from genetic engineering technology as “biotech
nology-enhanced foods,” others call them
“frankenfoods.” For the reasons discussed later in this
publication, controversy affects various issues related
to the growing of genetically engineered organisms and
their use as foods and feeds.
How does genetic engineering differ from
traditional biotechnology?
In traditional breeding, crosses are made in a relatively
uncontrolled manner. The breeder chooses the parents to
cross, but at the genetic level, the results are unpredict
able. DNA from the parents recombines randomly, and
desirable traits such as pest resistance are bundled with
undesirable traits, such as lower yield or poor quality.
Traditional breeding programs are time-consuming
and labor-intensive. A great deal of effort is required to
separate undesirable from desirable traits, and this is not
always economically practical. For example, plants must
be back-crossed again and again over many growing
seasons to breed out undesirable characteristics produced
by random mixing of genomes.
Current genetic engineering techniques allow seg
ments of DNA that code genes for a specific character
istic to be selected and individually recombined in the
new organism. Once the code of the gene that deter
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