DNA repair

important aspect of CRISPR is the Cas-9 protein which functions as a nuclease (Doudna, Charpentier, 2015). A nuclease is “an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of a phosphodiester bond of a nucleic acid,” in other words it can cut DNA (OED). Cas-9 can be used to cut DNA at any site with ease and simplicity, including in humans. This is where the problem with CRISPR begins. It can modify somatic and germ line cells efficiently and quickly. Somatic cells are all the cells in the body except…

treatments (Wiki.com). History shows that modification of food itself due to humans has been around since 12,000 BC with the domestication of crops and artificial selection. Genetic engineering on the other hand was the result of direct transfer of DNA from one organism to another by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen in 1973. The first genetically altered plant was a tobacco plant in 1983 followed by various trials and in 1994 the first marketed food on grocery shelves was the…

What is Genetically Modified Food? Genetically modified (GM) foods are defined as "foods derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism" (WHO, 2015). Genetic engineering (also called modern biotechnology or gene technology) performs this modification. The specific genes selected from one organism are transferred to another within different species such as animals,…

Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs, as they are more commonly referred to, over the past 40 years have slowly become an integral part of society. A GMO is a “an organism or microorganism whose genetic material has been altered by means of genetic engineering” (Stoub 2015). Mainly, GMOs are used in the agricultural field specifically in the area involving the production of high demand crops. Because GMOs facilitate the growing of popular crops, they have been dubbed as a saving grace that…

It is the genetic instructions for how as aspect of a person develops. A genotype for a specific trait is inherited from the parents. The environment can influence the phenotype through Epigenetics. The environment can physically alter a DNA sequence or it can influence gene expression. A trait that was once supposed to be present is suppressed by an environmental factor. The phenotype is often not influenced in one way or another; there is a range oh phenotypes that result from an environmental…

In the movie GATTACA, which takes place some time in the future, it is considered normal for parents to visit doctors who specialized in child conception in order to select the best traits for their children. While the majority of the human race in GATTACA chose to rely on doctors specializing in child conception in order to determine the traits of their child, there are those who still use the “old” and natural way of conceiving. Some would say that “playing God” for their children would be…

theory also explains why the mitochondria contains its own ribosomes (Bolsover, S., Hyams, J., Jones, S., Shephard, E. and White, H. 1997) and circular genome very similar to that of a bacterial genome (Allison, L. 2007) also why the mouse mitochondrial DNA was shown as more closely related to the prokaryotic sequences than to the house mouse…

of our society. The Debate on the Safety of Genetically Modified Organisms: In the last few decades Gmos have be introduced in order to fulfill our cultures supply needs for food. Genetically Modified Organisms can be crops that have a modified DNA sequence that is superior than naturally occurring plants. Abbie Goldbas states that, “Gmos are organisms whose genetic makeups have been changed by mutating, inserting, or deleting…

FPV is in the family Parvoviridae, which contains 26 species of virus that infect a broad host range, covering species from invertebrates to humans. Parvoviruses are small single stranded DNA viruses enveloped by a T=1 non-enveloped capsid protein. Replication of these viruses can only occur when the host cell is in S-phase of its mitotic cycle (15). FPV has a very small linear genome that is only 5 kilobases in length (4). The virus’s genome has specific sequences, similar to a TATA boxes, that…

Duchene Muscular Dystrophy is an inherited neuromuscular disorder of childhood which primarily affects boys characterized by progressive muscle weakness and wasting due to a mutation in the dystrophin gene of X chromosome. Degeneration of muscles usually begins to appear in the lower half of the body then spreading into upper limbs and eventually leading to death. Between 1830 and 1850 scientists reported on an illness where boys grew gradually weaker, lost the ability to walk and died at an…