Applied Genetics Ch. 24
How the Principles of Genetics
are used.
How have humans applied
Genetics?
 People
have bread plants and animals
for specific desirable traits for
thousands of years.
 Selective breeding is the crossing of
plants and animals with desired
characteristics to produce offspring
with those characteristics.
Other cases of Selective
Breeding
 Disease
resistant
plants such as corn
and wheat.
 Variations of
flowers for color or
shape
 Bigger, leaner
livestock
How is a Hybrid produced?
 Sometimes
breed offspring with two or
more desired traits
 Hybridization is the crossing of two
different but related species.
 Ex. Mule (horse/donkey)
 Beefalo
Mule
Beefalo
Some plants offspring are
bread together?
 Some
desired traits are amplified by
inbreeding offspring of the same
species.
This could make a desired trait more
prominent, but will not allow new genes
to enter the species.
Where is the future of
Genetics?
 Genetic
Engineering is the process in
which genes or pieces of DNA are
transferred from one organism to
another.
Combining DNA from one organism with
the DNA of another.
 This process is called recombinant DNA

Recombinant DNA
How does it happen?
 Usually
a gene from a higher organism is
placed into to a lower organism.
 Human genes have been inserted into
bacteria and yeast to produce certain
proteins. Ex. Insulin
 A gene is usually inserted into a ring of
DNA from bacterial called a plasmid.
 When the plasmid is placed in a bacteria the
bacteria will produce the protein coded in
the plasmid.
Genetically Engineered
Products
 Medicine
 Insulin,
 Growth Hormone,
 Vaccines,
 interferons
More Genetically
Engineered Products
 Agriculture
 Crops that fight
disease
 Freeze resistant
crops
Cloning is apart of Genetic
Engineering
 Monkeys,
sheep,
and bacteria have
already been
cloned.
 Should humans or
parts of humans?
Is Genetic Engineering
Right?
 Arguments
For
 Arguments Against
 New medical
 It is “playing God”!
breakthroughs
 Save lives
 Limit suffering
from disease
 We are messing
with nature.
 It may lead to a
supreme race.
Web Task
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Run a web search for information on
genetic engineering.
Then in Microsoft Word, summarize two of
the sites you found. Remember to give the
addresses.
Once done with the summaries, give your
opinion on genetic engineering and support
it.
Save your paper to a disk and hand it in.
Make sure your name is in the file name.
Task Scoring Rubric
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5points for each site summarized in a
complete well written paragraph.
5points explaining your opinion of genetic
engineering.
5points for supporting your opinion with
facts from sites or from the presentation.
Total of 20 points as a quiz grade.