Genetic Engineering Is Beneficial to Mankind

GENETIC ENGINEERING IS BENEFICIAL TO MANKIND We, Homo sapiens (and every other organism on the planet), become what we are on the basis of the genes we inherit from our parents at the time of our birth. Whether you are tall, short, dark, dusky or fair, have great hair, good health – everything depends on these genes. Earlier these genes were believed to be ‘tamper proof' and they could not be manipulated. But the human brain and contemporary science does not deem anything as impossible. Thus, we came up with a concept called genetic engineering.Genetic engineering refers to the process of directly tackling an organism's genes. Molecular cloning and transformation is used in genetic engineering for changing the structure and nature of genes. This technology has brought about a sea change in farming and in human genetics. GE in Human itself The first and one of the most prominent genetic engineering pros is that genetic disorders can be prevented by identifying those genes which cause these diseases in people. The use of genetic engineering to prevent diseases is called gene therapy.This can be extremely advantageous especially when women screen their unborn babies for genetic defects. If there is a chance that the baby can have genetic defects, it can prepare the mother and the doctors before and after the baby delivered. In advanced cases, those problem genes can be corrected. In addition to that, infectious diseases can be controlled and effectively dealt with by implanting genes which code for the antiviral proteins particular to each antigen. Humans can be developed or formed to reflect desirable characteristics.It is being said, theoretically though that this process can drastically change human genomes. This would facilitate in helping people regrow their limbs and other organs. In addition to this, people can be made stronger, faster and smarter, by using genetic engineering in the future. In other cases, if a gene exists in nature which can be good for human beings, it can be ingested in human cells. Soon a possibility of human cloning with the help of human genetics cannot be ruled out. GE in animalsPlants and animals can be genetically engineered to make products useful for us. The great example of this is diary animals. Sheep, goats and cows produce a lot of milk. Biologists found that the expression of genes for the major milk proteins is under the control of a promoter. This promoter is a sequence of DNA that causes the adjacent genes to be expressed in the mammary gland. It is called the lactoglobulin promoter. This sets up a really nice opportunity for using genetic engineering.You could take the gene you want expressed in milk and put it into a DNA vector. Then you put this vector into a sheep egg cell. If you do this, the egg can then be developed in the laboratory for a couple of days until it becomes an embryo. You can insert the embryo into a mother and the offspring that are born are sheep that would make milk which contains this extra protein. This was actually behind the reason for cloning Dolly the sheep. GE in Plants Plants can be genetically engineered to make useful products.Genetically engineering a plant is a lot easier than animals. We don’t need to inject into the fertilized egg of a plant. We can take any plant cell grown in a laboratory, put the vector in, and then grow the plant up from that cell. In agriculture, too start off with different crops, genetic engineering can culminate in alteration of the DNA structure of the original crop. This will increase the growth rate of the plant along with its immunity, and resistance towards diseases caused by pathogens and parasites.These factors in turn will be amongst the most important benefits of genetic engineering when it comes to crops. These genetically modified foods could increase the food resources to satisfy everyone's hunger. This would be done by genetically modified crops for better productivity. These crops could be genetically modified to resist pests, fight bacterial and fungal infections or have great nutritional value. These are just a few benefits of genetic engineering. I’m sure more are coming in the future, as we discover more and more about genes and proteins.