SINCE
WHEN HAVE ORGANISMS BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED?
Plant varieties and animal breeds have been crossed for thousands
of years in order to obtain newer and better ones. To make cheese
or beer, new types of bacteria are always being selected. These
are the practices of traditional genetic selection. Crosses occur
within the same species or hybrids are developed when there are
various types of the same species.
In reality, traditional genetic selection always involves varieties
with an identical genetic structure, whereby thousands of genes
are exchanged simultaneously.
It is in this way that the originally wild tomato, which was the
size of a grape, has gradually developed into the present-day, fully
developed version.
Unfortunately, it takes an incredibly long time to get a new variety
to match the specifications that are required.
In modern biotechnology, which has been applied since the '70s,
varieties and breeds are not being crossed, but foreign genes are
implanted into a micro-organism, a plant or an animal.
There is no need, therefore, to wait for generations until the repeated
crossing process finally leads to an organism with the characteristics
that are required. Now only the genes that hold the required information
are transferred and this in one single process. |
