Torn at the Genes Case Study
1. What role does the FDA play in the regulation of the nation's food supply?
- The FDA is responsible for keeping the public healthy by making sure that the nation’s food supply is clean, clearly and honestly labeled, and healthy for whoever eats it.
2. What are the regulations that the FDA enforces regarding genetically altered foods? - The FDA determined that genetically engineered foods should be regulated the same as regular foods. There are no regulations to date that have been determined that are specific to genetically engineered foods.
3. How do scientists put a gene from one organism into another?
- The most common method is with an agrobacterium. Since bacteria reproduce quickly, it’s easy to create the same favorable gene many times over. The bacterium causes the plant to send it nutrients. They take one piece of the plant’s DNA and put the favorable DNA into the plant.
4. What are the differences between using traditional methods of artificial selection and using various transgenic methods of altering crops? - With artificial selection, there is a wider variety of genes that may be selected from within a generation, giving more diversity within a group. Transgenic methods of altering crops involve placing new genes into a certain generation of plants, which makes them nearly identical, which gives the generation a higher mortality rate due to illness that would affect each plant in the same way.
5. What are the health risks associated with the use of genetic alterations? - New allergens could be created within the genetically altered foods that could be unknown to those sensitive to it. Antibiotic resistances that are carried within genetically modified foods could move on to pathogens, also making them resistant.
6. What role do gene markers play in genetic engineering? - Gene markers can be used to replace faulty proteins within DNA with normal ones. These genes are usually placed into a bacterium and are reproduced
- The FDA is responsible for keeping the public healthy by making sure that the nation’s food supply is clean, clearly and honestly labeled, and healthy for whoever eats it.
2. What are the regulations that the FDA enforces regarding genetically altered foods? - The FDA determined that genetically engineered foods should be regulated the same as regular foods. There are no regulations to date that have been determined that are specific to genetically engineered foods.
3. How do scientists put a gene from one organism into another?
- The most common method is with an agrobacterium. Since bacteria reproduce quickly, it’s easy to create the same favorable gene many times over. The bacterium causes the plant to send it nutrients. They take one piece of the plant’s DNA and put the favorable DNA into the plant.
4. What are the differences between using traditional methods of artificial selection and using various transgenic methods of altering crops? - With artificial selection, there is a wider variety of genes that may be selected from within a generation, giving more diversity within a group. Transgenic methods of altering crops involve placing new genes into a certain generation of plants, which makes them nearly identical, which gives the generation a higher mortality rate due to illness that would affect each plant in the same way.
5. What are the health risks associated with the use of genetic alterations? - New allergens could be created within the genetically altered foods that could be unknown to those sensitive to it. Antibiotic resistances that are carried within genetically modified foods could move on to pathogens, also making them resistant.
6. What role do gene markers play in genetic engineering? - Gene markers can be used to replace faulty proteins within DNA with normal ones. These genes are usually placed into a bacterium and are reproduced