Genetic engineering and cloning

Abstract

Genetic engineering can also be used to remove genetic material from the target organism, creating a gene knockout organism. The most commercialised GMO's are insect resistant and/or herbicide tolerant crop plants. Organisms are genetically engineered to discover the functions of certain genes. Using genetic engineering techniques one can transform microorganisms such as bacteria or yeast, or transform cells from multicellular organisms such as insects or mammals, with a gene coding for a useful protein, such as an enzyme, so that the transformed organism will overexpress the desired protein. Cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Organism cloning (also called reproductive cloning) refers to the procedure of creating a new multicellular organism, genetically identical to another. In essence this form of cloning is an asexual method of reproduction, where fertilization or inter-gamete contact does not take place. The term clone is used in horticulture to refer to descendants of a single plant which were produced by vegetative reproduction or apomixis.