What are some common or interesting organisms that contain recombinant DNA?
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at
1:41 am
Please list interesting organisms that have been modified using recombinant DNA technology - excluding GloFish. Thanks!
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Tagged with: organisms • recombinant dna technology
Filed under: Recombinant DNA
Plant example:
BT corn (transgenic maize). The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces a toxin which is insecticidal to pests such as the corn borer. The gene that codes for this toxin is inserted into maize plants, which subsequently begin producing the insecticide. Another example is golden rice, which appears yellow due to added beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, which is a major deficiency leading to blindness among poorer countries. By introducing a gene that produces beta carotene into the rice plant, normal rice can be made to solve the problem of vitamin a deficiency.
Animal example:
Enviropig is a transgenic pig which is able to produce manure low in phosphate. This is due to an added gene which allows it to produce a phosphate digesting enzyme, phytase, which comes from bacteria. The benefit of decreased phosphate in manure is the decrease occurance of algal blooms (eutrophication).