Genetically Modified Animals

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RUNNING HEAD: GENETICALLY MODIFIED ANIMALS 1

Genetically Modified Animals

In today’s world, most people are afraid of what they do not know nor understand.

Genetically modified animals have a significant impact on our environment and human health. It

can be a difficult topic to begin to understand, and science is the only reliable tool that we have

when it comes to gaining knowledge about genetically modified organisms. I will discuss what

does science tell us about GMO’s? What this type of technology can accomplish, and how does

society view it?

The first steps to understanding genetically modified animals would be to describe the

relationship between their genes, proteins, and phenotypes. According to an article on

Atascientific.com, in an organism, most genes contain the information the needed to make

proteins. This involves two significant steps in getting to the point of making proteins which are

transcription and translation, which is known as gene expression. In gene expression, the genetic

make-up of each somatic cell is the same, but some genes are not expressed in every cell.

Phenotypes are known as observable characteristics that result from the interaction between your

genes and the environment. For example, a phenotypic trait can be one’s hair or eye color, or

even their height, which is conducted through gene control and gene expression (Uncovering the

Relationship Between Genes and Proteins, 2010). This information is needed to be able to break

down how a plant, animal, or microorganism is made and what the benefits of their existence are.

Rapid genetic manipulation began in 1973 with the GMO which was an E. coli

bacterium carrying a gene from another species of bacterium that enabled it to become resistant

to the antibiotic tetracycline (State, n.d.). This opened the doorway for genetically modified

organisms and other related subjects.

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GENETICALLY MODIFIED ANIMALS 2

To be able to achieve the level of outcomes that took thousands of years, scientists use

genetic engineering techniques to speed up the process of evolution and created a way to

precisely change or alter the physical attributes of an organism to accomplish specific benefits

such as for disease resistance.

According to the Responsibletecnology.org, “a GMO is the result of a laboratory process

where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially inserted into the genes of

an unrelated plant or animal. Some terms used to describe GMO’s are genetically engineered,

genetically modified or altered, transgenic, and biotechnology-derived (The GE Process, n.d.).

All living organisms have natural barriers to protect themselves against the DNA

introduction from other species. Therefore, scientists must “force” the DNA into the organism.

Some of these methods may include using viruses to “infect” an animal or plant cells with new

DNA, or they use a very fine needle to inject DNA into fertilized eggs (The GE Process, n.d.). It

all depends on the subject that is being modified. The way these genes are isolated and used as

noted in the book The Process of Genetic Modification, “the gene of interest is usually already

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