Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering, also known as genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is a biotechnology technique that involves the direct manipulation of an organism’s genes to introduce, remove, or modify specific traits or characteristics. This process allows scientists to alter the genetic makeup of an organism in a controlled manner, leading to the expression of desired traits that may not naturally occur or to the suppression of undesirable traits.
Key aspects of genetic engineering
Gene Splicing:
Gene splicing is a common technique in genetic engineering, involving the insertion of specific genes from one organism into the DNA of another organism. These genes can come from different species and can be selected to confer particular traits.
Gene Editing:
Gene editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, enable scientists to make precise changes to an organism’s DNA by cutting, adding, or modifying specific DNA sequences. This technique has revolutionized genetic engineering due to its accuracy and efficiency.
Applications in Agriculture:
Genetic engineering is widely used in agriculture to develop genetically modified (GM) crops with desirable traits, such as resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to herbicides, increased nutritional content, and improved yield.
Medical Applications:
In medicine, genetic engineering has opened up possibilities for gene therapy, which involves introducing or repairing specific genes in patients to treat genetic disorders or other diseases at the genetic level.
Industrial Uses:
Genetic engineering is used in the production of various industrial products, including enzymes, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels, by modifying microorganisms to produce specific compounds.
Research and Basic Science:
Genetic engineering is a fundamental tool in biological research, allowing scientists to understand gene function, study disease mechanisms, and unravel the complexities of genetics.
Ethical and Social Implications:
The ethical and social implications of genetic engineering are a subject of debate and concern. Issues such as safety, unintended consequences, equitable access to technologies, and potential impacts on the environment and biodiversity are often raised.
Regulation:
Many countries have established regulations and guidelines for the use of genetic engineering technologies to ensure safety, environmental protection, and responsible deployment.
Through genetic engineering, scientists are able to move desirable genes from one plant or animal to another or from a plant to an animal or vice versa.
In essence, genetic engineering is a technology wherein a specific gene can be selected and implanted into the recipient organism.
The process of genetic engineering involves splicing an area of a chromosome, a gene, that controls a certain characteristic of the body. For example,
- This gene may be reprogrammed to produce an antiviral protein.
- The enzyme endonuclease is used to split a DNA sequence as well as split the gene from the rest of the chromosome.
- This gene is removed and can be placed into a bacterial cell where it can be sealed into the DNA chain using ligase.
When the chromosome is once again sealed the bacterial cell is now effectively re-programmed to replicate this new antiviral protein.
The bacterium can continue to live a healthy life while genetic engineering by human intervention has manipulated it to produce the protein.
Advantages of Genetic Engineering
Genetically Modified (GM) Crops:
Genetic engineering made it possible to create crop varieties regarded as “more beneficial” in terms of coming up with crops with the desired traits.
Examples of genetically engineered plants (Bt Cotton) with more desirable traits are drought-resistant plants, disease-resistant crops, plants that grow faster, and plants fortified with more nutrients.
Treatment of Genetic Disorders and Other Diseases:
Through genetic engineering, genetic disorders may also be fixed by replacing the faulty gene with a functional gene.
Disease-carrying insects, such as mosquitoes, may be engineered to become sterile insects.
This will help in curbing the spread of certain diseases, e.g. malaria and dengue fever.
Therapeutic Cloning:
It is a process whereby embryonic cells are cloned to obtain biological organs for transplantation.
Challenges of Genetic Engineering
While genetic engineering is beneficial in many ways, it is also implicated in certain eventualities deemed as “unpleasant” or disadvantageous.
Irreversible Changes:
Nature is an extremely complex interrelated chain. Some scientists believe that introducing genetically-modified genes may have an irreversible effect with consequences yet unknown.
GMOs can cause harmful genetic effects, and genes move from one species to another that is not genetically engineered.
It has been shown that GMO crop plants can pass the beneficial gene along to a wild population which may affect the biodiversity in the region. An example is the sunflowers genetically engineered to fend off certain insects.
Health Issues Related to GMO Crops :
There are concerns over the inadvertent effects, such as the creation of food that can cause an allergic reaction.
Bioethics: Genetic engineering borders on many moral and ethical issues. One of the major questions raised is if humans have the right to manipulate the laws and course of nature.
Dangers Associated With Genetic Engineering
Rapid Growth of Technology
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) gene editing, developed only a few years ago, deploys the same natural mechanism that bacteria use to trim pieces of genetic information from one genome and insert it into another.
This mechanism, which bacteria developed over millennia to defend themselves from viruses, has been turned into a cheap, simple, quick way to edit the DNA of any organism in the lab.
CRISPR isn’t the only genetic technology we need to worry about. A broader field, “synthetic biology”, is making the tools for genetic engineering widely available.
Democratization of Biotechnology:
As CRISPR is cheap and easy to use, thousands of scientists all over the world are experimenting with CRISPR-based gene editing projects with very little of this research being limited by regulations.
The technologies have democratized to such a degree that any country can engineer viruses.
Further, the danger comes not only from governments: Non-state actors, rogue scientists and bio-hackers have access to the same tools.
Also, researchers have demonstrated that they can recreate deadly viruses such as that of smallpox, which took humanity decades to eradicate
Way Forward
As there have been no checks or balances, and it is too late to stop the global spread of these technologies. The only solution, now, is to accelerate the good side of these technologies and build defenses. In this context:
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence & Big Data: With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and genomic data, scientists will decipher the complex relationships between DNA and biological processes and find treatments for diseases.
Deploying 3D Printing: 3-D printing can help develop at-home medicines, tissues, and bacteria custom-designed to suit our DNA and keep us healthy.
Gathering of Genomic Data: There is a need to develop genomic blueprints of humans and other species, this information can help immensely to defend and develop vaccines against pandemics like Covid-19.
Conclusion
Technologies such as genomics, synthetic biology, sensors, 3D printing, and AI should be leveraged by India to analyze data and develop treatments. Through this, India can lead the world in research and innovation in genetic engineering and lay the foundation for a trillion-dollar medical industry.
GM Mosquitoes (GMMs):
GMMs are mosquitoes that have been implanted with a gene or bacteria which was not originally present or naturally occurring in the insect.
Why GMMs?
Each year, more than 700 000 people die from vector-borne diseases (VBDs) such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Zika virus etc.,
Hence, there is an urgent need for new tools to combat
What does it do?
GMM approaches are aimed at suppressing mosquito populations &reducing their susceptibility to infection, as well as their ability to transmit disease-carrying pathogens.
The WHO stand on GMMs:
According to the WHO statement, GMMs could be a valuable new tool in efforts to eliminate malaria & control diseases carried by Aedes
WHO cautions, however, that the use of GMMs raises concerns& questions around ethics, safety, governance, affordability & cost–effectiveness that must be addressed.
Genome Sequencing
A genome is a complete set of genetic instructions that are present in an organism in its DNA. Sequencing is the sequence of occurrences of the four nucleotide bases i.e., adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
The human genome is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters. The whole genome can’t be sequenced all at once because available methods of DNA sequencing can only handle short stretches of DNA at a time.
While human genomes are made of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), a virus genome can be made of either DNA or RNA (Ribonucleic acid). Coronavirus is made of RNA. Every organism has a unique genome sequence.
Genome sequencing is a technique that reads and interprets genetic information found within DNA or RNA.
- A decade ago, scientists in Germany and the US discovered a technique that allowed them to ‘cut’ DNA strands and edit genes.
- For agriculture scientists this process allowed them to bring about desired changes in the genome by using site-directed nuclease (SDN) or sequence-specific nuclease (SSN).
- Nuclease is an enzyme that cleaves through nucleic acid — the building block of genetic material.
- For agriculture scientists this process allowed them to bring about desired changes in the genome by using site-directed nuclease (SDN) or sequence-specific nuclease (SSN).
- Advanced research has allowed scientists to develop highly effective clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat (CRISPR) -associated proteins-based systems.
- This system allows for targeted intervention at the genome sequence.
- This tool has opened up various possibilities in plant breeding. Using this tool, agricultural scientists can now edit the genome to insert specific traits in the gene sequence.
- Depending on the nature of the edit that is carried out, the process is divided into three categories — SDN 1, SDN 2, and SDN 3.
- SDN1 introduces changes in the host genome’s DNA through small insertions/deletions without the introduction of foreign genetic material.
- In the case of SDN 2, the edit involves using a small DNA template to generate specific changes.
- Both these processes do not involve alien genetic material and the end result is insisting
Approaches for Genome Sequencing
There are two approaches to the task of cutting up the genome and putting it back together again.
The “clone-by-clone” approach involves first breaking the genome up into relatively large chunks, called clones, about 150,000 base pairs (bp) long. Scientists use genome mapping techniques to figure out where in the genome each clone belongs.
Next, they cut each clone into smaller, overlapping pieces of the right size for sequencing—about 500 BP each. Finally, they sequence the pieces and use the overlaps to reconstruct the sequence of the whole clone.
The “whole-genome shotgun” method involves breaking the genome up into small pieces, sequencing the pieces, and reassembling the pieces into the full genome sequence.
Significance of Genome Sequencing
Understands the Virus:
The purpose of genome sequencing is to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity. Some mutations explain immune escape or the virus’s ability to evade antibodies which have consequences for vaccines.
Studying Efficacy:
It helps in studying whether the vaccines developed so far are effective against such mutant strains of the virus and if can prevent reinfection and transmission.
Tracing Mutations:
Sequencing of the genomes of viral strains is important from a “know-thy-enemy” point of view as it becomes easier to trace the mutations. Scientists can find mutations much more easily and quickly.
Developing Vaccines:
Knowledge generated through vital research assists in developing diagnostics and potential therapeutics and vaccines now and for potential diseases in the future.
Vital Information:
important information and findings can be derived from the Genome sequencing of those who tested positive for COVID.
APOBEC3 protein
- The study also suggests that several mutations that have been identified in the new sequences of the monkeypox virus may have emerged due to interaction between the virus genome and an important family of proteins coded by the human genome known as the Apolipoprotein B Editing Complex (or APOBEC3).
- These proteins offer protection against certain viral infections by editing the genome sequence of the virus while it replicates in the cell.
- Some researchers, therefore, suggest that many of the genetic mutations in the monkeypox genomes from the current outbreak are relics of the effect of APOBEC3 and may not provide a significant evolutionary advantage to the virus.
- Monkeypox virus can infect a range of hosts, including non-human primates and rodents which could act as a natural reservoir.
- Infections in the reservoir could also enable continued transmission and accumulation of mutations before spilling over to cause human infections.
- Other studies have also suggested a continued evolution of the virus, including deletions involving genes as seen in a few genomes from the present outbreak, which could suggest newer ways in which the virus continues to evolve with sustained human-to-human transmission.
Genome Sequencing Initiatives By India
Genome India
GenomeIndia:
Cataloging the Genetic Variation in Indians is a Pan India initiative focused on Whole Genome Sequencing of representative populations across India. The goal is to start with and execute whole genome sequencing and subsequent data analysis of 10,000 individuals representing the country’s diverse population. This will help build an exhaustive catalog of genetic variations in the Indian population, and aid in the designing of a genome-wide association chip for the Indian population which will facilitate further large-scale genetic studies in a cost-effective manner. Furthermore, it would also open new vistas for advancing personalized medicine regimens in the country paving the way for predicting health and disease outcomes and modulating treatment protocols on the basis of the genome sequences. Besides, it would help in identifying the population groups that are more susceptible to various risk factors for certain diseases in its second phase and would thus be instrumental in designing appropriate intervention strategies for such population groups.
This is a mission-mode, multi-institution consortium project, the first of its kind in India supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.20 national institutions in the country are collaborating on this project, supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. The investigators have expertise in specific areas relevant to the project like, human genetics, computational biology, research in big data, statistics, and population genetics. This is an excellent collaborative venture promoting capacity building across several institutes of the country. It will also help in capacity building across the country in high throughput genomic sequencing and computational analysis including AI and ML.
Indigen Project
The Ministry of Science and Technology has approved an ambitious gene-mapping project called the Genome India Project (GIP). The project has been described by the researchers as the “first scratching of the surface of the vast genetic diversity of India”.
It will enable new efficiencies in healthcare, medicine and life sciences. However, GIP also raises concerns pertaining to medical ethics, political misuse, etc.
The IndiGen Genome Project is an initiative of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to collect and sequence the genomes of the ethnic Indian population in order to develop better public health applications.
The IndiGen Genome Project was launched by the CSIR in April 2019. It was implemented by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
- The Genome India Project is inspired by the Human Genome Project – an international programme that led to the decoding of the entire human genome.
- HGP has a major diversity problem as most genomes (over 95%) mapped under HGP have been sourced from urban middle-class white people. Thus, HGP should not really be seen as representative of the human genome.
- In this context, the GIP aims to vastly add to the available information on the human species and advance the cause, both because of the scale of the Indian population and the diversity here. This diversity can be depicted by:
- Horizontal Diversity: The Indian subcontinent has been the site of huge migrations, where the first migrations were from Africa. Also, there have been periodic migrations by various populations from all around the world, making this a very special case of almost all races and types intermingling genetically.
- Vertical Diversity: There has been endogamy or intermarriage practiced among distinct groups, resulting in some diseases passed on strictly within some groups and some other traits inherited by just some groups.
- Studying and understanding both diversities would provide the bedrock of personalized healthcare for a very large group of persons on the planet.
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