BIOL 1001 Chapter : 4 18 12
Document Summary
Mutations are often harmful, and an organism inheriting them may quickly die. Some mutations may be beneficial and provide an advantage to the organism in certain environments (least frequent scenario) These advantageous mutations may be favored by natural selection and are the basis for evolution of life on earth. Biotechnology: modification of organisms, cells, or molecules to produce food, drugs, or other goods. Used of yeast to make bread, beer, and wine. More modern uses modify the genes directly through genetic engineering. A key tool is creating recombinant dna (dna that has been altered to contain genes or portions of genes from different organisms) Plants and animals that express dna that has been modified or derived from other species are transgenic or genetically modified organisms (gmos) Therefore, every egg & every sperm contain recombinant dna derived from the two parents. Transformation may combine dna from different bacterial species. In transformation, bacteria pick up pieces of dna from the environment.