1. Genetic Engineering

Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

Chapter 08 Microbial Genetics and Genetic Engineering – Cowan – Dr. Mark Jolley – Video

Posted on by


Chapter 08 Microbial Genetics and Genetic Engineering - Cowan - Dr. Mark Jolley
Chapter 08 Microbial Genetics and Genetic Engineering - Cowan - Dr. Mark Jolley Dr. Mark Jolley, Cowan, Microbiology, Eagle Gate College, Provo College, Micr...

By: Mark Jolley

Excerpt from:
Chapter 08 Microbial Genetics and Genetic Engineering - Cowan - Dr. Mark Jolley - Video

Genetic engineering course wins Science magazine prize

Posted on by

Public release date: 26-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Biology students at the University of Minnesota take a course in their very first semester in which they propose their own gene-based solution to a problem. Among the projects they have worked on was a camouflage military suit that could change color through the use of a gene that allows an octopus to camouflage itselfa technology that happened to be developed by the U.S. military a few years later.

"We've got these undergrads who propose amazingly practical, valuable, doable and sophisticated projects," Sue Wick, director of biology major undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota and one of four professors there who developed the course.

Because of its effectiveness at teaching undergraduates how to think like professional biologists, the Genetic Engineering Proposal curriculum module has been chosen to receive the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.

The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as provide an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about the Genetic Engineering Proposal, written by course co-creators Wick, Mark Decker, David Matthes and Robin Wright, will be published on September 27.

"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief emeritus of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."

From its inception, the Genetic Engineering Proposal course module has applied one main principle: that students should do biology, rather than just read about it. This idea was familiar to Wick, even when she was taking high school biology at her Milwaukee, Wisc., all-girls high school. Her teacher, a former medical technologist, made sure her students' science education was inquiry-based.

"There was inquiry, the idea of exploring, that we didn't know everything, that there were still so many things to discover, to explore and find out about," Wick says.

With her teacher's encouragement, Wick participated in a National Science Foundation summer high school program, took Advanced Placement biology, and ultimately went on to earn a PhD in the biological sciences.

Original post:
Genetic engineering course wins Science magazine prize

Researchers mull genetic engineering for conservation

Posted on by

Published: Sept. 25, 2013 at 5:18 PM

POCATELLO, Idaho, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The pros and cons of genetic engineering should be weighed to determine if tweaking should be included in the species-saving mix, a U.S. researcher said.

Conservationists are considering rescue remedies, such as moving animal populations to help them track hospitable habitats, to stave off the extinction, basically, of between 15 percent and 40 percent of species by 2050, Michael Thomas of Idaho State University and his colleagues said in the latest edition of Nature.

In a commentary, Thomas and his co-authors consider the pros and cons of adding genetic engineering into the mix.

The authors argue that with the attention agricultural genetic engineering has received and techniques used to transfer genetic material more sophisticated, it is just a matter of time before conservationists apply the approach to safeguard biodiversity.

The authors noted there are many practical challenges to find appropriate target genes to move between populations of the same species -- or even between different species -- to avert extinction of a threatened population.

The effects of moving material to a different environmental and genetic context also would be difficult to predict, the authors said.

However, the authors cautioned that the possibility of using genetic-engineering tools to save biodiversity could lead to inaction with regard to climate change.

Visit link:

Researchers mull genetic engineering for conservation

Medical Advancements in Genetic Engineering Journal OMICS Publishing Group – Video

Posted on by


Medical Advancements in Genetic Engineering Journal OMICS Publishing Group
This video belongs to Genetic Engineering which is a techinque of controlled manipulation of genes to change the genetic makeup of cells and move genes acros...

By: omicsgroupinc

See original here:
Medical Advancements in Genetic Engineering Journal OMICS Publishing Group - Video

Genetic engineering may the only thing that can save the world’s oranges

Posted on by

Genetic engineering may save the orange tree from becoming an endangered speciesThere's a virulent disease destroying orange trees around the world, and growers are facing a hard choice genetically engineer the orange to survive this plague, or possibly see the fruit, and their livelihood, disappear.

The effects of Citrus GreeningThe disease, called Citrus Greening (or Huanglongbing or yellow dragon disease), is a bacteria that was first reported in China in the early 20th century, and it's spread by tiny insects called Asian citrus psyllids. Orange trees infected by this bacteria drop their leaves, and their fruit becomes stunted. There's no pesticide that can control the psyllids that carry the disease (they quickly adapted to the ones we have), and there's no treatment for the disease itself. The only way to 'treat' an infection is to quarantine the area and burn the infected trees. However, even those efforts aren't helping much. This disease has spread throughout the southern United States, Mexico and Central America, Brazil, southeast Asia and western Africa, threatening crops from the largest orange producers in the world.

[ Related: GMO companies launch website to fight anti-biotech movement ]

One source of hope, it seems, is genetic engineering.

According to a New York Times article from this past weekend (which I highly recommend reading), growers in Florida have been looking into genetic engineering since 2005, but despite some promising results so far, they are understandably worried about public reaction.

Genetically-modified organisms 'GMOs' have a very bad reputation with the public these days. It's hard to even mention them without someone speaking of the evils of Monsanto, or hearing the word 'frankenfood', or about how genetically-modified foods cause any number of illnesses and diseases. Given that it's our health and our lives that we're talking about, being concerned about what we're being given to eat is understandable.

However, historically, we've been genetically modifying our crops and livestock for centuries, if not millennia. It's been done through cross-breeding and cross-pollination, with mixed results. The point is, though, that it's very unlikely that anything we eat these days has gone without some kind of human manipulation at some point. New techniques of directly changing the DNA of the plant or animal cause more concerns, though, with talk of splicing in animal DNA into plants.

Take it from a self-proclaimed hippy who thinks Monsanto is evil, though, that's not what scientists are doing. They create artificial genes based on what they see in animal genes, rather than splicing animal genes directly into plant DNA. That may not help someone's perception of what's going on, since it still impacts how 'natural' a food is, but in that case, I'll simply point back to the start of the previous paragraph. Also, another point this 'hippy' makes is that the more 'natural' cross-breeding methods are no safer than directly altering DNA (in fact, the more direct method is the safer of the two).

The science speaks on behalf of GMOs as well. The American Association for the Advancement of Science wrote last October that "the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and 'every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques.'"

[ More Geekquinox: U.S. supercomputer now doubles power for hurricane forecasts ]

See more here:
Genetic engineering may the only thing that can save the world’s oranges

Genetic Engineering: A New Use for Algae in Biofuel Production

Posted on by

Lawrence, KS (PRWEB) July 29, 2013

Phycologia In recent years major companies from all over the globe, including Exxon Mobile and Itochu Corporation, have merged with research facilities to research algae as a renewable energy source. However, it has been determined that far more research is needed before movement to the commercial production phase of algae biofuel can truly take place. A recent research study took up this challenge and examined a promising freshwater algal strain for possible genetic engineering applications that could make it a viable biofuel.

An article in the journal Phycologia takes an in-depth look at the genetic structure of a unicellular green alga, Botryococcus braunii, and explores its unique ability to be utilized in the genetic engineering of biofuel development. Botryococcus braunii was initially selected for large-scale biofuel production because of its extraordinary ability to synthesize large amounts of hydrocarbon oils. Several difficulties were encountered in the initial production and harvesting processes, leaving it by the wayside. However, this latest research reintroduces B. braunii as the perfect vehicle for genetic engineering applications when compared with three other species of green algae, five species of land plants, and eight other phyla species, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and mammals.

The research focused on the codon usage, or DNA compatibility, of B. braunii with the other organisms. Codon usage for this particular alga is one of the fundamental genetic markers that had not been explored. Codons are greatly affected by the vast amount of guanines (G) and cytosines (C), two of the four nucleotides that make up a DNA molecule. Many green algal species having high GC content, which causes codon usage bias, or poor compatibility, with other organisms. Surprisingly, B. braunii had comparatively low GC content and its codon usage was similar to that of bacteria, mammals, and land plants.

Although further study is necessary, the ability of B. braunii to synthesize hydrocarbons, combined with the newly discovered codon usage and GC content data, could lead to new genetic engineering techniques that could hasten biofuel development and production.

Full text of the article, Codon usage of Botryococcus braunii (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta): implications for genetic engineering applications, Phycologia, Vol. 52, No. 4, 2013, is available at http://www.phycologia.org/doi/full/10.2216/12-041.1

About Phycologia Phycologia is the official publication of the International Phycological Society and publishes papers on any aspect of algal research. For more information, visit http://www.intphycsoc.org.

Read more:
Genetic Engineering: A New Use for Algae in Biofuel Production


  1. Genetic Engineering