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Course: Applied Biology - Class 12 > Unit 3
Lesson 1: IntroductionGenetically modified organisms
What is a GMO? What are the pros and cons of modifying an organism?
Key terms
| term | meaning |
|---|---|
| GMO | genetically modified organism |
| genetic material | the nucleic acids (like DNA or RNA )that contain genetic information of an organism |
| genome editing | changing the genetic material of an organism; for eg., removing or adding a gene |
What is a GMO?
What comes to mind when you think of a genetically modified organism (GMO)? Do you imagine a mad scientist injecting plants with chemicals, like in the image below?
The truth is, the mad scientist scenario isn't what happens! There is a lot of mistrust surrounding the use of GMOs, so let's take a look into what exactly this mysterious term means.
A GMO is any organism that has had its genetic material intentionally changed. This could mean adding a useful gene to the organism, or removing a harmful one. While the most commonly seen GMOs are vegetables and fruits, the term also refers to bacteria and viruses that have modified DNA or RNA (depending on their genetic makeup).
Which of the following are examples of GMOs?
Why do we need GMOs?
Here are some of the major advantages of using GMOs -
- GMOs can make plants resistant to pests and environmental stresses like drought, reduce the use of pesticides, and therefore increase the yield of crops.
- GMOs can provide added nutritional value to food. For example, golden rice is a GMO that was created to carry extra vitamin A in it, in order to prevent diseases caused by its deficiency.
- GMOs can be used to manufacture a range of useful pharmaceutical products. Several medicines, vaccines, and enzymes are industrially produced using genetically modified bacteria.
- GMOs can help scientists carry out research. Lab rats and mice, along with bacteria, fish, and several other organisms are all used routinely to study diseases and other biological concepts. Humans would not have made the scientific advances they have today without the use of these GMOs.
Why don't people trust GMOs?
If there are so many good things about GMOs, why is there so much mistrust about using them?
Some of this comes from a lack of understanding of the term. People might misunderstand the nature of GMOs and think that GM crops are harmful to health (studies have actually shown that there is no significant truth to this). There is a myth that animals or humans that ingest GM products will also become genetically modified - this is untrue.
- One real issue with GM crops is that farmers often need to buy the seeds from pharma companies each time they need them, which can be expensive. (However, the reduced use of chemical pesticides is thought to help reduce long term expenses after this initial bump in costs.)
- Several countries require GM products to be labeled, while some have banned their use completely. The golden rice mentioned in the previous section of this article is not allowed in several countries!
Other concerns include a fear of unspecific targets (for eg., GM crops killing off useful insects instead of only pests), or of foreign genes spreading in the wild (like antibiotic resistance spreading among bacteria).
Research is currently ongoing to test what the effects of longterm use of GMOs are. Remember to consider both the pros and cons of these GMOs when considering whether to use them or not.
Want to join the conversation?
GMOs' pros seem to boil down to saving lives. But the cons listed here don't seem to cover one potential harm that my question is on. To engineer a GMO is to play nature when you're not the natural selector. In other words, the deeper question here is whether we should even edit an organism's genome when we didn't design it in the first place. Is that correct?(2 votes)
You are completely correct in that statement though. The real thing that is the pressing issue though, is whether we tamper with nature to TRY to save people, or not in my opinion(1 vote)