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Natural Selection and Genetic Modification

Genetic engineering and modern agriculture

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Genetic engineering and why a human gene works in a bacterium, insulin-making bacteria and golden rice, transgenic organisms, its advantages over selective breeding, engineered human insulin, the risks and ethical objections, a risk shared with selective breeding, and labelling and the long-term effects of GM organisms.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Explain why a gene taken from a human can still work when it is put into a bacterium.

Key term

Give an example of a genetically engineered bacterium and state what it produces.

Key term

Give one example of a genetically engineered crop plant and the characteristic that was added.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is genetic engineering?

    Model answer

    It is changing an organism's genome, usually by inserting a gene from a different organism, so that the organism develops a desired characteristic.

  2. 2

    Explain why a gene taken from a human can still work when it is put into a bacterium.

    Model answer

    All organisms use the same genetic code, so the same sequence of bases is read to build the same protein whatever cell it is in.

  3. 3

    Give an example of a genetically engineered bacterium and state what it produces.

    Model answer

    Bacteria given the human insulin gene produce insulin, which is used to treat people with diabetes.

  4. 4

    Give one example of a genetically engineered crop plant and the characteristic that was added.

    Model answer

    Golden rice has been given genes so that its grains make beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A.

  5. 5

    Golden rice contains a gene taken from a daffodil. What term describes an organism like this?

    Model answer

    It is a genetically modified, or transgenic, organism.

  6. 6

    Explain one advantage genetic engineering has over selective breeding.

    Model answer

    A single chosen gene can be added in one generation, and it can come from a completely different species rather than only from within the same one.

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Key Concepts in Biology
Cells and Control
Genetics
Natural Selection and Genetic Modification

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ANitrates cause an algal bloom that blocks the light.
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