Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

Agrobacterium tumefacians is used for the production of transgenic plants as it carries a plasmid capable of inducing tumors in plants. These tumors can be artificially induced by transferring the gene into a plant which otherwise is not prone to infection, where the plasmid is genetically engineered for inserting a particular gene, for example, the transfer of delta endotoxin and npt II gene, from Bacillus thuringiensis, in commercially useful plants like cotton to protect it from its predator, the gall worm

Transgenic plants are created by introducing a foreign gene (transgene) from another organism into the plant's genome, allowing it to express new traits.

A transgenic crop plant contains a gene or genes which have been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring them through pollination. The inserted gene sequence (known as the transgene) may come from another unrelated plant, or from a completely different species: transgenic Bt corn, for example, which produces its own insecticide, contains a gene from a bacterium. 

Transgenic animals are used for various purposes, including testing the safety of vaccines, assessing the toxicity of drugs, and producing pharmaceutical proteins.

Mice are the most commonly used transgenic animals in research due to their short reproductive cycle, ease of handling, and genetic similarity to humans.

A transgenic animal is defined as an animal that has had foreign DNA (exogenous DNA) introduced into its genome, which is then passed on to its offspring.

A reporter gene is a gene that researchers attach to a regulatory sequence of another gene of interest in bacteria, cell culture, animals or plants. It determines the action of transgene in transgenic plants and animals.

Pseudomonas fluorescens is a bacterium that has been genetically engineered to express proteins that inhibit ice crystal formation, providing frost resistance to plants.

Streptokinase is an enzyme produced by Streptococcus bacteria that acts as a clot buster by breaking down blood clots. It is produced commercially using genetic engineering.

Dolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. It carries the gene for antihemophilic IX.

So, the correct option is ‘Genes for Antihemophilic IX’.

Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, at Roslin Institute, the first mammal known to be cloned. A cell taken from the mammary gland of a 6-year-old Finn Dorset ewe was cloned through a technique known as nuclear transfer. The reproductive egg cells were removed from another female sheep, a ewe of a Scottish Blackface. Scottish Blackface egg cells were then fertilized with the genetic material from the Finn Dorset mammary cells and they fertilized cell was transferred to the uterus of the surrogate mother. On July 5, 1996, Dolly was born from one of the surrogate Blackface ewes which were identical to the Finn Dorset sheep.

The blue-white screening method uses a modified plasmid vector (like pUC19) in E. coli to detect recombinants based on the inactivation of the lacZ gene, which produces a color change.

Genetic engineering is a branch of science that uses various biotechnological techniques to manipulate an organism's genome to  create species with desired traits. However, the process involves isolation, transfer and insertion of the new genetic material into host genomes and storage of genomes in organisms and selective markers for an indefinite period. Experiments have shown that certain bacteria has the ability to naturally take in and express foreign DNA.  It has been found that of these,  E.coli  has the ability to transfer DNA laterally to and from other species while Agrobacterium  can transfer genes to plants and fungi by causing crown gall disease.

Genetic engineering is a branch of science which uses a set of biotechnology techniques and knowledge of cytology and genetics to  bring modifications to an organism's genome.   For such research,  scientists need to store and modify the genes and genetic information from wide range of organisms into organisms that can be easy to transform.  Bacteria more commonly Escherichia coli is used to transform and create the genetically modified bacteria as this can be transformed and stored easily for indefinite periods at -80 C and replicate the modified DNA in short time period.

Genetic engineering, also known as recombinant DNA technology, means altering the genes in a living organism to produce a genetically modified organism (GMO) with a new genotype. Various kinds of genetic modification are possible: inserting a foreign gene from one species into another, forming a transgenic organism; altering an existing gene so that its product is changed; or changing gene expression so that it is translated more often or not at all.