Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

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.

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.

Biotechnology is an applied branch, which involves the use of bioanalytical techniques. This branch is mainly associated with the genetic engineering, which helps in the modification of organisms.

Transposons are basically jumping genes. Protoplast fusion is a technique of creating hybrids, the mating of one species protoplast and other species protoplast. While microinjection is a method of injecting our interest of DNA directly into the host. We can achieve transformation by microinjection too but Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is most commonly used. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a naturally occurring soil bacterium causing crown gall disease and has the ability to introduce new genetic material into the plant cell. 

Genetically modified crops are the crop which consists modified DNA sequences. The modifies sequence expresses itself and increases the quality and quantity of food and promotes the development of disease resistant varieties.

A significant concern regarding the introduction of genetically modified food is the potential for horizontal gene transfer or the unintended presence of allergens or toxins that could pose health risks to consumers.