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The History And Various Types Of Gmo

Decent Essays

Edward Kartamyshev
Ms.Reid
Period 6
March 19, 2017 The history and various types of GMO’s By definition, genetically modified organisms or GMO’s are those whose genome has been genetically engineered in a laboratory in order to favor the expression of desired physiological traits or the production of desired biological products. GMOs have a very long history, being around for over 30,000 years. However, they’ve only become a hot topic in the past decade. In fact “The relative number of Google searches for “GMO” has more than tripled since late 2012” ( “A Brief Look”). This statement by a Harvard article depicts the public’s increasing awareness and understanding behind the concept of GMO’s. The original …show more content…

“Scientists have found domestic varieties of wheat”(...). Nevertheless, the artificial selection of corn created one of the most dramatic and prevalent alterations in plant genetics. “Corn, or maize, began as a wild grass called teosinte that had tiny ears with very few kernels” (Rangel). Thus, the information scientists gathered from these sites depicts that people in Southwest Asia were cross pollinating different corn plants so they would have more and bigger kernels in 7800 BCE. I for one always believed that the process of manipulating other animals or plant genes was a more modern discovery and would’ve never believed that this process has been going on for more than 30,000 years. Although artificial selection is very much prevalent in today’s society, it has dramatically evolved. “An enormous breakthrough in GMO technology came in 1973, when Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen worked together to engineer the first successful genetically engineered organism”(“A Brief”). The genetically engineered organism was created by cutting out one organism’s gene and pasting it into another gene. This demonstrates the jump from the old GMO to the new GMO. The differences between the two is that one method involves selective breeding and cross pollination, while the other is simply

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