IMPORTANT: Genetic Engineering
Hi all,
We're glad to announce that our committee will be hosting a professor on the morning of Saturday the 3rd to give a micro-lecture to our committee about genetic engineering, it's potential, ethical implications, and potential areas of regulation. The professor's name is Dr. Urnov, and he's an adjunct professor of genetics within UC Berkeley's molecular and cell biology department and an Associate Director at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences, and worked in biotechnology for a number of years. We're honored to have him join us and are sure his presentation will be informative and assist debate.
But I wanted to make a post about genetic engineering to give you a better background on the topic than the topic synopsis did, just to make sure that no one is confused by what Dr. Urnov is presenting if he discusses material above the level of the topic synopsis.
Genetic Engineering Techniques:
Traditionally:
Traditional genetic engineering, especially of plants, involved crossing and selection. Selection is simply picking individuals with a desired trait, breeding them together(or with itself in the case of plants) and planting these selected individuals preferentially over others. After a few generations, the new organisms created can look significantly different from the original parents. The best example of this is corn, which was bread from being inedible to the staple crop it now is today. And crossing is breeding different organisms of the same species together, each with a different desired trait, until the offspring show the desired traits from both parents. A classic example of this is the Russet potato, which was actually very selectively bred. However, new technologies have influenced these processes. With a better understanding of genetics and molecular identification, scientists can now isolate sequences of nucleic acid near the desired gene and track their spread when breeding. Because this isolated segment or "marker" is inherited along with the desired gene, the organisms with the desired trait can be planted and those without it discarded. This takes out the trial and error of traditional selection, where an offspring might not have the desired gene, and reduces the time needed to create a new version of a plant from roughly 25 years to only 7-10.
Modern:
Recombinant DNA
This method involves first finding a gene of interest, then cutting it out with restriction enzymes or "DNA scissors" that consistently cut the DNA along certain sections; meaning restriction enzymes cut at specific places predictably(or mostly predictably). Then a bacterial plasmid or circular loop of DNA can be cut with the same restriction enzyme to produce DNA cut at the same location as the gene of interest. The mixture of the gene of interest and cut bacterial plasmid are then mixed together with DNA ligase, an enzyme that binds broken DNA together. This only works because restriction enzymes cut the DNA a certain way each time between the two strands of DNA in a helix producing "sticky ends" that allow segments cut with the same restriction enzyme to be easier stuck together. In case my description of restriction enzyme cutting wasn't good(skip ahead a bit and plasmid-specific cutting will be shown with a picture): https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/biotech-dna-technology/dna-cloning-tutorial/a/restriction-enzymes-dna-ligase.
Once the plasmid with the desired gene is created, it's placed on petri dish where bacteria can take it up and incorporate it into themselves. Over time, the plasmid is replicated, so the gene of interest on the plasmid is also replicated and bacteria are producing your gene of interest. The DNA of the plasmid is now called recombinant DNA because it's a mixture of genetic material from multiple sources. This technique is used to make many proteins, hormones, and antibiotics. An example of this is Genentech, who originally made their money using recombinant DNA to produce human growth hormone.
Another variation of this technique uses vectors, mostly viruses, but is much more confusing. Here is a link explaining it: http://biologyboom.com/basic-genetic-engineering-techniques/
Another technique for genetic engineering is known as poration, and comes in two forms. One involves specialized chemicals and the other involves exposing cells to a weak electrical current, but in both cases the result is the same: pores or holes in the surface of the cell are created that make it easier insert genes into the cell because they can pass through the pores.
Potentially helpful extension link: https://www.pulsemaster.us/pef-pulsemaster/faq
The "bioballistics method" involves shooting small bits of silver coated with genetic material into the cell, where it incorporates with the cell's genes and is incorporated into the cell's DNA.
Potentially helpful extension link: https://www.slideshare.net/katigoesrawr/the-biolistic-method
Notes: These "modern" techniques were used exclusively before the invention of CRISPR-Cas9, and are the kinds of techniques that the topic synopsis references as "more expensive and less effective" than CRISPR-Cas9. But they are still used at times today because they're more familiar to those in the field than CRISPR, so it's possible Dr. Urnov will mention them and so it's a good idea to have an understanding of their basics at least. And between this and a previous post I made on CRISPR-Cas9, hopefully you'll all be prepared for Dr. Urnov's presentation.
And if any of these descriptions weren't clear or satisfactory, information about these techniques will be every easy to find as they're some of the most common genetic engineering techniques.
And here is a link with WAY more techniques than I even understand, in case you're interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215771/.
Was this post helpful?
Are any of the techniques I mentioned not clear, at least at a basic level?
And feel free to leave any other questions you have in the comments and I'll try my best to answer them.
We're glad to announce that our committee will be hosting a professor on the morning of Saturday the 3rd to give a micro-lecture to our committee about genetic engineering, it's potential, ethical implications, and potential areas of regulation. The professor's name is Dr. Urnov, and he's an adjunct professor of genetics within UC Berkeley's molecular and cell biology department and an Associate Director at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences, and worked in biotechnology for a number of years. We're honored to have him join us and are sure his presentation will be informative and assist debate.
But I wanted to make a post about genetic engineering to give you a better background on the topic than the topic synopsis did, just to make sure that no one is confused by what Dr. Urnov is presenting if he discusses material above the level of the topic synopsis.
Genetic Engineering Techniques:
Traditionally:
Traditional genetic engineering, especially of plants, involved crossing and selection. Selection is simply picking individuals with a desired trait, breeding them together(or with itself in the case of plants) and planting these selected individuals preferentially over others. After a few generations, the new organisms created can look significantly different from the original parents. The best example of this is corn, which was bread from being inedible to the staple crop it now is today. And crossing is breeding different organisms of the same species together, each with a different desired trait, until the offspring show the desired traits from both parents. A classic example of this is the Russet potato, which was actually very selectively bred. However, new technologies have influenced these processes. With a better understanding of genetics and molecular identification, scientists can now isolate sequences of nucleic acid near the desired gene and track their spread when breeding. Because this isolated segment or "marker" is inherited along with the desired gene, the organisms with the desired trait can be planted and those without it discarded. This takes out the trial and error of traditional selection, where an offspring might not have the desired gene, and reduces the time needed to create a new version of a plant from roughly 25 years to only 7-10.
Modern:
Recombinant DNA
This method involves first finding a gene of interest, then cutting it out with restriction enzymes or "DNA scissors" that consistently cut the DNA along certain sections; meaning restriction enzymes cut at specific places predictably(or mostly predictably). Then a bacterial plasmid or circular loop of DNA can be cut with the same restriction enzyme to produce DNA cut at the same location as the gene of interest. The mixture of the gene of interest and cut bacterial plasmid are then mixed together with DNA ligase, an enzyme that binds broken DNA together. This only works because restriction enzymes cut the DNA a certain way each time between the two strands of DNA in a helix producing "sticky ends" that allow segments cut with the same restriction enzyme to be easier stuck together. In case my description of restriction enzyme cutting wasn't good(skip ahead a bit and plasmid-specific cutting will be shown with a picture): https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/biotech-dna-technology/dna-cloning-tutorial/a/restriction-enzymes-dna-ligase.
Once the plasmid with the desired gene is created, it's placed on petri dish where bacteria can take it up and incorporate it into themselves. Over time, the plasmid is replicated, so the gene of interest on the plasmid is also replicated and bacteria are producing your gene of interest. The DNA of the plasmid is now called recombinant DNA because it's a mixture of genetic material from multiple sources. This technique is used to make many proteins, hormones, and antibiotics. An example of this is Genentech, who originally made their money using recombinant DNA to produce human growth hormone.
Another variation of this technique uses vectors, mostly viruses, but is much more confusing. Here is a link explaining it: http://biologyboom.com/basic-genetic-engineering-techniques/
Another technique for genetic engineering is known as poration, and comes in two forms. One involves specialized chemicals and the other involves exposing cells to a weak electrical current, but in both cases the result is the same: pores or holes in the surface of the cell are created that make it easier insert genes into the cell because they can pass through the pores.
Potentially helpful extension link: https://www.pulsemaster.us/pef-pulsemaster/faq
The "bioballistics method" involves shooting small bits of silver coated with genetic material into the cell, where it incorporates with the cell's genes and is incorporated into the cell's DNA.
Potentially helpful extension link: https://www.slideshare.net/katigoesrawr/the-biolistic-method
Notes: These "modern" techniques were used exclusively before the invention of CRISPR-Cas9, and are the kinds of techniques that the topic synopsis references as "more expensive and less effective" than CRISPR-Cas9. But they are still used at times today because they're more familiar to those in the field than CRISPR, so it's possible Dr. Urnov will mention them and so it's a good idea to have an understanding of their basics at least. And between this and a previous post I made on CRISPR-Cas9, hopefully you'll all be prepared for Dr. Urnov's presentation.
And if any of these descriptions weren't clear or satisfactory, information about these techniques will be every easy to find as they're some of the most common genetic engineering techniques.
And here is a link with WAY more techniques than I even understand, in case you're interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215771/.
Was this post helpful?
Are any of the techniques I mentioned not clear, at least at a basic level?
And feel free to leave any other questions you have in the comments and I'll try my best to answer them.
Thank you for posting and explaining the techniques! We are excited by the opportunity our committee has to engage with an expert in genetic engineering! As a delegation, Germany believes that overall, genetic engineering is beneficial for the development of new technologies, given that it has allowed for the development of GE human insulin for diabetes treatment. Additionally, seeing that the recombinant DNA technology market had generated $499.8 million in 2016, we are enthusiastic about the role this technology will have in the biotech industry's near future.
ReplyDelete