Genetically Modified Foods Genetic Modification

Genetically Modified Foods Based on our studies, for years ancient farmers had been altering the genetic makeup of many crops. The old day approaches used to be simple and new varieties of produces were made through a mixture of trial and error, without knowing the exact function of the genes being moved around. The ancient farmers would pick an organism with a favorable trait or characteristic and would match them with some distantly related species through forced pollinations (Wilson, 2013). According to Wilson (2013), the speed and accuracy of these changes are the only difference between the traditional ways of genetically modifying crops and the modern methods of genetically engineering food. Nowadays, genetic modification is defined†¦show more content†¦For the sake of the argument, the process of genetically modified soybeans is going to be explained. GM crop plants contain artificially inserted genes or transgenes from other unrelated plant or from a completely different species through advanc ed genetic engineering techniques, (Singh, Ghai, Paul, Jain, 2006, p. 599). According to Singh et al, (2006) one possible result for a genetically modified Soybean (Glycine maxL.) is as followed: Phenotypic trait is Glyphosate herbicide resistance, the Transgene is Mutant EPSPS gene, and the Trait introduction method is Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant transformation or Micro-particle bombardment of plant cells or tissue (p.599). In order to genetically modify a soybean’s genetic make-up, the gene to be introduced into the soybean is first isolated. In this isolation process a marker gene gets injected to the soybean so the modified cells and unmodified cells can be distinguished. This marker gene typically converse resistance to a selective agent, often an antibiotic, so the unmodified cells can simply get killed and consequently leave the modified cells behind, and then the other gene is meant to confer a desirable phenotype, which is often herbicide and pest resist ant and/or has other food qualities such as shelf-life, taste, and/or nutritional value, (Celec, P., KukuÄ kovà ¡c M, Renczà ©sovà ¡c V, Natarajanc, S, Pà ¡lffy, R,