Genetic engineering is the process of directly manipulating an organism's genes through technology. This act involves changing the genetic material of the cell and transferring these specific qualities or traits from one organism into another. During the alteration and adjustment stage, the manipulated gene and chemicals bind together and are transferred into plants, animals, or different species which is then referred to as a genetically modified organism (GMO). Genetic engineering has resulted in a number of benefits. Agriculture has benefited with genetic engineering tremendously and crops and plants continue to be the number one target for biotechnology. This is merely because it allows farmers to improve profitability by growing crops that are resistant to insects, herbicides and delayed ripening so that they can be shipped to various places, and not be spoiled. Furthermore, genetic engineering has also played an important aspect in medicine and has led to various kinds of products that have benefitted those who suffer from illnesses. A few products involved with genetic engineering are antibiotics, vaccines, and the production of enzymes as well as the two products prepared by the recombinant DNA technology for producing human growth hormones and insulin which were both produced in the E.Coli bacteria. Insulin is an important animal source used to treat diabetes and the entire process for producing insulin is a simple yet complex procedure. .
One important application regarding genetic engineering is to combine the DNA from various organisms into bacterial cells to produce a required product. This end result is what is called Recombinant DNA. It is the act of taking a piece of DNA and combining it with another organism's DNA to produce a new strand of DNA. In the production of insulin, the foreign DNA is placed into the plasmid of a bacterium. Moreover, there are three stages in order to take to manipulate the genes in order to produce recombinant DNA which involves separating DNA strands into various pieces, the insertion of these pieces into the vector and lastly, introducing the vector into the bacterium since insulin is a protein.
