The Pros And Cons Of Genetically Modified Organisms

1080 Words5 Pages

A genetically modified organism, commonly referred to as a GMO, is an organism whose genetic makeup has been altered using genetic engineering. The general reason that GMOs were created was to attempt to get an organism to display new/different traits. Other reasons include modifications to keep pests and diseases away from the plant, modifications to improve the plant's ability to live in a certain area, as well as modifying an animal, such as chickens, so that they have more meat than they would normally have. These are just a few of many different reasons. One thing that most, if not all, of the reasons for GMOs are for the betterment of the organism as well as the human race.
There are several differences between the traditional method with which artificial …show more content…

Rather than just breeding the two organisms together with the desirable traits to reinforce the genes that are already there, the organisms have to be genetically engineered.
The largest part of the whole idea of genetically engineered organisms is how the genes are added into the new plants. There are six steps to the process of genetically engineering organisms. The first of which is the isolation of the specific gene that they would like to extract and use in the creation of another organism. Scientists have to study the genetic makeup of the organism and isolate the specific gene that has the desired genetic characteristic, this process is also called mapping. After scientists locate the gene they then have to extract the gene from the organism. In this step scientist take a sample of the organism that hold the gene they want and through a series of steps, that vary depending on the organism, they remove the DNA from the sample. Once