1. Biotechnology GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

2. GMOs  Genetically Manipulated (Modified) Organisms  Also called transgenic organisms  Organisms whose genetic material has been altered to include specific genes, often from another species

3. Purpose of GMOs?  Increase crop yields  Increase shelf life  Make disease and parasite resistant crops  More nutritious crops  Others?

5. Flavr Savr  1994, the first GMO food do be sold commercially  A tomato altered to stay fresh longer  Contained a gene that blocked the production of an enzyme responsible for rotting

6. Golden Rice

7.  Modified by adding genes from daffodils and bacterium  Modified Rice now contains Vitamin A  Many people in developing nations rely on rice as a major staple in their diet.  Golden Rice provides more nutrition. Golden Rice

8. Bt Corn  Inserted gene from the soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis  Causes the corn crops to produce a toxin making it resistant to insects.

9. Bt corn

10. Benefits of Bt Corn  Reduces damage caused by the European Corn Borer (ECB)  Less expensive than insecticide  Less checking for effects of ECB  Less insecticide – better for environment  Less fungal infections

11. Harmful effects of Bt corn  May kill other insects – influence food webs and ecosystems  Insects may develop resistance to Bt toxin  Which would make BT spray (insect repellent) ineffective for human use  Pollen may get into another crop field, infiltrating organic crops and putting other ecosystems in jeopardy.

12. Reproductive Cloning  CLONE: genetically identical organisms or cells derived from a single parent cell  In adult organisms, all the cells are specialized to do specific jobs (for example: red blood cells, stomach cells, skin cells).  It is very difficult to take a specialized somatic cell and turn it back into a cell that is unspecialized (like those in zygotes).

13. Animal Cloning  In July 1996, Ian Wilmut, a Scottish scientist, cloned the first mammal from an adult body cell – a sheep he named Dolly.

15. How did he do it?  He first obtained an udder cell from a Finn Dorset sheep and removed the nucleus

16.  He then obtained an egg cell from a Poll Dorset Sheep and removed the nucleus from the egg cell.

17.  He placed the nucleus from the 1 st cell (the Finn Dorset cell) into the egg cell of the Poll Dorset

18.  To get this new cell to undergo cell division, he shocked it with electricity. He had to do this process ~277 times until it finally worked

19.  Once the cell began dividing it formed an embryo.  He implanted the embryo into the uterus of a Scottish Blackface Sheep  The clone grew in the uterus of until it was born.  Dolly the sheep was a clone of the Finn Dorset Sheep.

20. DOLLY PARTON

21.  Unfortunately, Dolly (the sheep!) died prematurely at the age of 6 (half her lifespan)  She displayed symptoms of premature aging, and such as arthritis and lung disease which is present in older sheep.

22.  Many more species have been successfully cloned since Dolly, including goats, cows, mice, pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, horses and camels, however, there are still many problems.

23. Why Clone Mammals?  Cows that produce the most milk, hens that lay the most eggs, Cattle that produces the best tasting and beef can be cloned to make more organisms with the same desirable traits and create more financial profits.

24.  If we could develop technologies to clone organs, it could solve problems related to lack of organ donors for sick individuals

25. Theraputic Cloning  Involves stem cell research  Aims at cell therapy – where diseased cells are replaced with health ones.  Human embryos are produced (in vitro) and allowed to grow for a few days into a small ball of the cells.  These cells are not yet specialised (they’re stem cells/ pluripotent)

26.  Stem cells can also be obtained from umbilical cords or aborted fetuses.  PURPOSE:  Treat people suffereing from Parkinson’s  Treat spinal cord injuries  BONE MARROW – transplants for leukemia patients

27. Ethics of Therapeutic Cloning  PRO: can cure and treat diseases with cell therapy

28. Ethics of Therapeutic Cloning  CONS:  Fear it can lead to reproductive cloning  Creation and destruction of human embyros (“playing GOD”?)  Embryonic stem cells are capable of many division and may turn into tumours.