Slective Breeding & Genetic Engineering Flashcards
What is selective breeding
Humans artificially selects the plant of animals that are going to breed so that the genes for the particular characteristics remain in the population
Why do we use selective breeding
For animals that produce meat or milk
Crops with disease resistance
Decorative plants
Basic selective breeding process
Breed the one with the desirable characteristic
Select the best offspring and breed them together
Continue this process and the desirable traits will get stronger
What does agriculture use selective breeding for
To improve yields
What are the problems of selective breeding
Inbreeding- it reduces gene pool - number of different allele in populations
Inbreeding can cause health problems and if new diseases appear it can be dangerous as there’s less change of resistive alleles
What is genetic engineering
To transfer a gene responsible for a desirable characteristic from one organisms genome into another organism
How does genetic engineering work
A useful gene is cut from one organisms genome using enzymes and is inserted into a vector
The vector is usually a virus/ bacterial plasmid depending on the organism being transferred to
When vector is introduced to target organism the useful gene is inserted into cells
Pros of genetic engineering
Can increase yield
Crops could be modified to contain needed nutrients
Cons of genetic engineering
Reduced farmland biodiversity
Could be Unsafe and have side effects when eating them
Transplanted genes may get out into the natural environment
How can plants be cloned
From tissues culture and cuttings
What is cloning tissue culture
Few plant cells are put in a growth medium with hormones and grow into new plants
What is cutting to make clones
Parents can take cuttings from good parent plants and plant them to produce genetically identical copies
How do you make animal clones
Using embryo transplants
How is cloned offspring made
Sperm cells are taken from male and egg cells are taken from female
The sperm is used to artificially fertilise the egg cell
The developed embryo is split many times because any cells become specialised
The cloned embryos can be put into other cows and hundreds of ideal offspring are produced
How does adult cell cloning work
Take an unfertilised egg cell and remove its nucleus
Remove a nucleus from an adult body cell and insert it into the empty egg cell
Stimulate the egg cell with an electric shock to make it divide
When the embryo is a ball of cells it’s implanted into a womb and grows into a clone of the original adult body cell
