Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Gene technology
http://www
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au/en/Outcomes/Food-and-Agriculture/Genetechnology/How-gene-technology-developed
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For a gene to work, it must have all three basic parts, but they do not have
to be from the same organism
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Each of the four nucleotides has a different base, called adenine, guanine,
thymine and cytosine
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For example, you could take the protein-producing part of a gene in corn
that produces vitamin A and combine this with the on and off gene switches
from a seed gene from rice
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Inserting the gene
When a gene has been modified it is inserted into the DNA of the new
organism, so it becomes a permanent part of the organism's genetic
makeup
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How scientists do this depends on the type of organism
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The most commonly used techniques in plants are biolistics and
Agrobacterium
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To do this,
scientists use selectable marker genes, which are like flags that signal
whether a cell has taken up the modified gene
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When a gene has been modified it is inserted into the DNA of the new
organism, so it becomes a permanent part of the organism's genetic
makeup
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In this case, any cells that have not taken up the modified gene and its
associated marker gene will die, leaving only those cells that have been
genetically modified
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For example, if the new gene has been put into a plant cell, cells
are grown in a 'tissue culture'
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Regenerating plants from individual cells is
a slow process, but once the plants are big enough they can be put into pots
and grown in glasshouses
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Because the gene was inserted into the DNA at the egg
stage, when the cell divides, every cell in the growing embryo will contain
the new DNA

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