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Plant Breeding and Biotechnology 01:59

18.7K

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.

As humans' understanding of genetics advanced, improved crop varieties could be achieved more quickly. Artificial selection could be more directed, and crop varieties enhanced for favorable traits more quickly to produce better, more robust, or more palatable...

Synthetic Biology 02:55

4.7K

Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary science that involves using principles from disciplines such as engineering, molecular biology, cell biology, and systems biology. It involves remodeling existing organisms from nature or constructing completely new synthetic organisms for applications such as protein or enzyme production, bioremediation, value-added macromolecule production, and the addition of desirable traits to crops, to name a few.
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...

What is Genetic Engineering? 00:49

73.0K

Overview

Genetic engineering is the process of modifying an organism’s DNA to introduce new, desirable traits. Many organisms, from bacteria to plants and animals, have been genetically modified for academic, medical, agricultural, and industrial purposes. While genetic engineering has definite benefits, ethical concerns surround modifying humans and our food supply.

Scientists can Deliberately Modify an Organism’s Genome

Genetic engineering is possible because the genetic...

The Central Dogma 01:20

19.7K

The central dogma explains the flow of genetic information from DNA nucleotides to the amino acid sequence of proteins.
RNA is the Missing Link Between DNA and Proteins
In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that DNA stores all the information needed for cellular functions and that proteins perform most of these functions. However, the mechanisms of converting genetic information into functional proteins remained unknown for many years. Initially, it was believed that a single gene is...

Recombinant DNA 01:09

93.0K

Overview

Scientists create recombinant DNA by combining DNA from different sources—often, other species—in the laboratory. DNA cloning allows researchers to study specific genes by inserting them into easily manipulated cells, such as bacteria. Organisms that contain recombinant DNA are known as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Recombinant DNA technology produces organisms with new genes that can benefit science, medicine, and agriculture.

How Do Scientists Create...

Biodiversity and Human Values 01:24

13.0K

Human civilization relies on biodiversity in many ways. Sudden changes in species biodiversity result in environmental changes that can modify weather patterns and therefore human civilizations.

Humans are dependent on agriculture, which developed when ancestral humans found species that made suitable foods. At least 11,000 years ago, humans started to select plant and animal species to be cultivated on farms. Going back for thousands of years, humans have been artificially selecting species...