GENETIC ENGINEERING: MANIPULATING LIFE

Genetic engineering is the science of altering living organisms by changing their genetic information. Genetic information is stored in an organism's deoxyribonucleic acid or "DNA". This is comprised of a large number of identifiable segments known as genes, and which are inherited across generations. Genes constitute the biological code that determines each individual organism's characteristics or "traits", including physical features such as eye colour and predispositions to certain diseases.

An organism's entire genetic sequence as encoded within its DNA is known as its genome. The human genome was mapped by the Human Genome Project, and consists of about 3 billion chemical base pairs that comprise roughly 20,000-25,000 distinct genes. This all means that the human genome contains about 750Mb or information, which could today be stored in your pocket on a 1Gb USB memory key. This is perhaps interesting given that an initial major constraint faced by the Human Genome Project was computer storage capacity.

Genetic engineering can involve genetic modification/manipulation (GM) in order to alter the traits of an organism and potentially its offspring. It can also involve gene splicing, whereby artificial or "recombinant" DNA is produced by splicing together genes from different organisms. When this technique is used to splice together genes between species is it known as transgenics and effectively results in the creation of a new species with an artificial genetic code that would not have occurred in nature

New Plants and Animals

Transgenic organisms have been a technical possibility for many decades. For example, in 1986 some tobacco plants were transgenically altered with a gene from a firefly to make them bioluminescent. Plants have more recently been transgenically altered to produce medicines including insulin. Transgenic plants may also in future be used to produce a flu pandemic (H5N1) vaccine.

Transgenic animals have also been created. Way back in 1986 the first transgenic mice were genetically altered to develop cancer. Since that time the creation of "humanised" transgenic mice and rats for research purposes has also almost become "routine", with the company Ozgene having being creating transgenic rodents for over twenty years.

A new breed of "enviropig" has also now been transgenically created by the Guelph Transgenic Pig Research Program to produce a more environmentally-friendly form of manure(!).

Designer Babies?

Genetic engineering in human beings is currently tightly regulated, if likely to become a major area of not just research but medical practice. Indeed, "designer babies" are already a reality given than embryos conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) are now often screened for certain diseases. With certain embryos then consciously selected for implantation, human choices are thereby already being made regarding the characteristics of resultant children. In time, parental or state choices regarding a range of embryo characteristics from eye colour to intelligence may therefore quite possibly become a reality.

Genetic engineering is a science in its infancy that faces not just highly complex technical hurdles, but also significant bioethical debates. Genetically modified crops that offer improved yields and high disease resistance may well be the answer to food shortages. However, they also raise understandable fears including the risk of genetic cross-contamination and the potential abuse of monopoly power as parts of the "natural" world start to become patented and controlled by Big Business. Human genetic modification is even more contentious. Indeed, it has been hypothesised that a "eugenics gap" may emerge between nations if different countries (such as China and the United States) continue to take very different ethical stances in respect of the research and practice of future human generic engineering.

An excellent source of further information on genetic engineering is GeneticEngineering.org.