Genetics and Genetic Modification of Foods

examples: Golden Rice Cows producing more milk

Jessica Migge & Sydney AdlerPeriod 3

Basic Principles of Genetics• Genetics is the scientific study of heredity.• Heredity is the passing of traits• There are two types of traits

• Dominant alleles• Recessive alleles

• Dominant alleles are traits that always show up in the organism when the allele is present.

• Recessive alleles are traits that are masked or covered up when the dominant allele is present, recessive alleles only show up when there is no dominant allele present.

Alleles for eye color

Since blue eye color is recessive it only shows up when no allele for brown is present

how the alleles of two parents combine to express traits in offspring

How are traits controlled with co-dominant alleles

• Co-dominant is when the two alleles that combine are either both dominant or both recessive.

• Geneticists use Punnett squares to show all the possible outcomes of a genetic cross and to determine the probability of a particular outcome.

Punnett squares

By placing the two different alleles on the side and top of the square.Copy the allele symbol: if it is on the side of the two boxes, copy into the two boxes moving left to right and if the allele is on top copy the allele symbol in the two boxes under the allele.The square shows the result and the number of times each combination occurs.

Human Genome Project

• The Human Genome Project started in 1990, was a planned 15 year study controlled by two different parts of the US Government with the help of other countries.

• The project was finished in 13 years because of new technology that was developed while the project was being worked on.

• With this project, scientists hoped to find new ways to diagnose, to find, treat and someday prevent the 1000’s of disorders.

The project was finished in 13 years because of new technology that was developed while the project was being worked on.

With this project, scientists hoped to find new ways to diagnose, to find, treat and someday prevent the 1000’s of disorders.

Goal of the Human Genome Project• Identify all genes in human DNA (between

20,000-25,000), • Determine the sequences of the 3 billion

chemical base pairs in human DNA, • Store this information in computers for later

use• Improve the tools for data analysis, • Transfer the technology used to private

companies • Address the ethical, legal, and social issues

(ELSI) that may arise from the project.

The Implications of the Human Genome Project

• Ethical implications • There are two types of ethical implications:

• Genetic engineering− consists of issues regarding genetic

manipulation

• Genetic information − Consists of questions regarding to the

collection and the use of genetic information

Genetic Engineering• Genetic Engineering is the changing of the actual DNA

code of an individual. There are many different types.• Therapeutic engineering is when genetic

engineering is used to treat diseases• Enhancement engineering is when science

attempts to increase some traits more than their normal level

• Somatic cell intervention changes the body cells• Germline intervention changes reproduction cells

Ethical Questions

• The ethical questions include• What if genetic engineering is used for non-

medical reasons?• With germline engineering, changes made

to the reproduction cells will be passed down to the next generation, the results are unknown.

• What if enhancement engineering does not produce the desired results?

• Genetic Information

• After scientists determine exactly what in the human genome causes diseases and other problem traits. This information could be used to avoid problems that could develop in humans later in their lives.

• Genetic screening is a way in which some of this information could be collected.

Ethical questions regarding genetic information include:

• What are the rules for the collection and use of this information?

• What should we do with the results when it creates difficult situations for the people and their families?

• Can we make every person in the USA provide their genetic information?

Legal and social Implications• Once the genetic information is collected,

there are many questions that have both legal and social implication, some of these include:

• Who should have access to personal genetic information?

• Who owns and controls this information?

• How does this information affect the perception of that individual?

• Should testing be performed when no treatment is available?

• Should parents have the right to have their minor children tested for diseases that occur in adults?

• How reliable and useful is fetal genetics testing?

Laws that have changed as a result of the Human Genome Project

• In August 1996, President Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability ( HIPAA)

• This law was created to protect American’s medical information. The law made a person’s genetic information part of their protected medical information.

How it changed Current Laws

• In 2003, some addition rules where added to HIPAA. These rules involved the use and disclosure of a person’s protected health information.

• One of these rules was called the Privacy Rule. This rule has to do with the release of medical information which could include the results of genetic testing when there is serious threat to the health or safety of a person.

How it changed Current Laws

• In 1998, President Bush signed a law called, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).

• This law protected Americans from being discriminated against based on the results of their genetic information. This law only applied to their health insurance and employment.

Genetic Disorders

• There are three different types of genetic disorders:

• Single gene disorder

• Chromosome abnormalities

• Multifactorial disorders

• Single gene disorder is a disorder that is caused by a defect in only one gene. A gene is part of a chromosome, a chromosome holds many genes.

• A chromosome abnormality reflects an change in the normal number or structure of a chromosomes.

• Multifactorial disorder is a disorders that arise when multiple genes have a mutation.

Compare and Contrast the different Genetic Disorders

• Single gene disorder, Chromosome Abnormalities and Multifactorial Disorders are types of genetic disorders which cause some type of change in the human genome. All three will lead to some type sickness, disease or condition in a person.

• Single gene disorder and multifactorial disorders are similar because both of these involve the gene, which is inside the chromosome.

Single gene and chromosome disorders can be passed down to the next generation but multifactorial cannot.

Single gene disorder and multifactorial disorders are similar because both of these involve the gene, which is inside the chromosome

• Genetic counseling can help parents find out if they have any genetic disorders that they either know about or don’t know about. The counseling will give the parents a chance to find out more information and discuss the possible genetic disorders in any future children.

Genetic Counseling

What are Karyotypes?

• Karyotypes are used to predict genetic disorders by seeing if they have the right amount of chromosomes, autosomes and sex chromosomes. A normal human karyotype has 46 chromosomes: 22 pairs of autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes.

• These karyotypes are found in the nucleus of the eukaryotic cell. This term is also used to describe a complete set of chromosomes.

GMO is genetically modified organisms. This is when scientists change the DNA of the organism. This leads to genetically modified foods.

This graph shows what countries are doing the most with GMO

Argument 1

• GMO rice in Africa

We are against the genetic modification of food because even though there are people in Africa who are starving and scientists can combined rice with chromosomes for peanuts that, it would grow and make more rice for people. Then as people ate this rice, some people might start to swell up and scientists didn’t know why. This could be that the people were allergic to peanuts and had a allergic

reaction.

Argument 2

• Another reason we are against genetically modified foods is that these genes could cause mutations in genes of the plant or animal. These genes can now cause all kinds of problems in our genes after we eat and digest the food. We have no idea how they will react with these GMO’s

Argument 3

• Another reason we are against genetically modified food is because they contain chemicals that make them grow differently.

• These could be toxic to people and the environment.

Argument 4

• Another reason why we are against genetically modified food is because certain genetically modified foods have been changed on the molecular level in ways that may be extremely dangerous to health and medical situations.

A possible result of GMO

Example: A blue strawberry with different properties

Conclusion

• I think that the government should be against genetic modified food because people can get sick by getting chemicals or medicines in their body from the GMO food that they have eaten. This could cause people to get very sick from these chemicals and using all of the medicine that was added to the GMO food,

What is Cloning?

Cloning is the process of producing a similar organism

Advancements in cloning

major medical advances have occurred due to cloning they include:

new ways to produce medicines

improve our understanding of cell development and genetics

Make perfect genetic matches for bone marrow cells for treatment of some kinds of cancers

Could one day be used to make stem cells. Stem cells are cells in the body that can be made into other types of cells

Genetic Research Video

Click the link above to watch a video.

Genetic Counseling

Works Cited• "The Difference Between a Chromosome Abnormality and a

Single Gene Defect." REDIRECTING. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. <http://www.chp.edu/CHP/P02119>.

• "Benefits of the Human Genome Project." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/benefits.shtml>.

• "Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues --Genome Research." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. 12 Mar. 2011. <http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/elsi/elsi.shtml>.

• Google images• GMOs in food crops – LoveToKnow everything you’d love to

know march 22 2011 http://organic.lovetoknow.com• Cloning Dolly the sheep, h

ttp://www.animalresearch.info/en/medical/timeline/Dolly• Cloning Research• http://www.mediorta.com/cloning-research/