Here is Question No. 44 a part of our series on UPSC Prelims 2020.
Q44. Consider the following statements:
Genetic changes can be introduced in the cells that produce eggs or sperm of a prospective parent.
A person’s genome can be edited before birth at the early embryonic stage.
Human-induced pluripotent stem cells can be injected into the embryo of a pig.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 2 only (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D
Statement 1 is correct: Germline gene therapy is the replacement of genes in an egg or sperm cells with which an offspring inherits a new trait. It allows for the correction of disease-causing gene variants that are certain to be passed down from generation to generation.
Statement 2 is correct: Using Genetically modified organisms technique, various genetic diseases of the off-springs can be cured, i.e., by editing their DNA. A nucleus is extracted from a cell of the individual to be cloned and is inserted into the enucleated the cytoplasm of a host egg (an enucleated eggs egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed) in reproductive cloning
