The Criticality of GENETIC ENGINEERING
Genetic engineering can be defined as the technique used for the modification of genetic makeup in an organism. Changes and modifications can be produced by various methods like gene targeting, artificially fusing synthetic chromosomes, nuclear transplantation, etc. which results in the creation of new DNA. But selective breeding does not come under any forms of genetic engineering. Mutation of genes and altering of genetic codes are one of the specialized parts of genetic engineering. The newly developed DNA can be put in arbitrarily or targeted to a definite fraction of the genome. Other synonyms used for this term “Genetic Engineering” are genetic manipulation or genetic modification.
When any organism gets generated by means of genetic engineering, then they are in generic terms called genetically modified (abbreviated as GM) species & the resultant individual is termed as Genetically Modified Organism (abbreviated as GMO). The world’s 1st genetically modified organism was a bacterium breed by Dr. Herbert Boyer and Dr. Stanley Cohen in the year 1973.
There are different procedures for the development of such genetically changed organisms is resulting in recombinant DNA which involves basic four steps. Genetic science and genetic engineering are highly linked with technology and need enormous technological support in order to sustain themselves in the market. Bioinformatics problems are big data problems. Genomics, Proteomics, Metagenomics, and Mutated genetic Editing are just a matter of understanding change in states in organisms with the context of a lot of features. Many of them can be sorted using machine learning which is really excellent in identifying different patterns in noisy data sets or from huge piles of data; keeping in mind that there should be enough data to make algorithms understand the genetic patterns.
Another important application of machine learning is in finding composite models and confirms and nullifies them rapidly and in a fast process, but this time you need a variety of data to compare and make decisions. Hence, the technological blend can greatly impact genetic engineering to accelerate research & development.
Let us now see some of the trending applications and applied fields of Genetic engineering: -
Genetically engineered plants bearing fruits and vegetables are bred in such a way that they bring more taste and proper color and nutrition to humans. An article that got published July 19, in a journal name Trends in Plant Science by two food researchers explains how innovative breeding procedures have the prospective in enhancing the shape, size, color, and health benefits in producing high-quality fruits and vegetables.
Another genetic engineering study provides various approaches to advancement as well as the development of autism in the human brain.
With the help of genetic engineering, genetically developed humanized mice were given capabilities to boost fighting capabilities with strong effecting diseases like hepatitis.
There is a buzzing tool of Genetic engineering that has been developed and evolved early this year — the CRISPR-Cas9. It is a genome (gene modifying) editing tool which is creating a massive shake in the science world. CRISPR- Cas9 is quicker tool, and is much cheaper and provides more accurate results than previous methods and tools for DNA editing and its possible applications are many. It consists of two particular molecules that help in changing and mutating DNAs. The enzyme it uses is named as Cas9 that acts as scissor more precisely ‘molecular scissors’ which cut 2 threads/strands of DNA at a precise location.
