Effects of Genetic Manipulation

Genetic manipulation is an un-natural practice by which the scientists can produce any organism with desired traits. Along with some advantages, this manipulation can have several harmful effects over the society which are discussed as follows:

1.    1. An organism which is born through un-natural means can have an untested genetic build up and if such genes become a part of the society can lead to many disasters.

2.  2.  It can also cause an ecological imbalance. The new organism can be resistant to certain drugs and antibiotics which can lead to the introduction of certain resistant variety of a disease causing harmful microbe.

3.   3. There are high chances that the information of changing the genetic make up could be misused.

4.    4. The genetically modified foods can cause an allergy among certain people who are allergic to a particular chemical. Moreover they will become the part of out genetic structure and can cause mutations at small level in our DNA.

5.  5.   The organisms which are used for testing die an un-natural death or have to undergo a lot of pain so they are given “mercy killing” in the end (As in case of Sheep clone Dolly). This practice of torturing the animals is unacceptable.

6.    6. There is also a risk of generating a superior human species which can be misused. 

7.   7.  There is a small but significant risk of the transmission of usually fatal zoonotic diseases. The introduction of these diseases to the human population could have devastating consequences.

8.  8.   There are other unknown risks related to environment. 

9.  9.  The genetically modified crops will prove expensive to the farmers because the seeds of such crops cannot be used to sow the crop again. So the farmer has to buy the seed every time. (As in case of BT cotton)

1. One of the major factor of concern is Bioterrorism where a deadly pathogen is used as a weapon. Bioterrorism can lead to huge disasters and loss of several lives across the globe.

Genome Sequencing Strategy

Here we have discussed a genome sequencing strategy which is commonly adapted in labs.

The steps in the complete genome sequencing will generate the cDNA sequences that can be used to develop BACs and cDNA microarrays. But since there limited genome data of the organism available, the sequencing will be carried out in two distinct stages.

 

Stage I:

In this stage, the cDNA library of the organism will be generated. The database of novel EST’s from the most diverse EST library would be prepared that can be used for gene annotation, cloning and development of microarray’s etc. The EST’s will expand the understanding of types of genes expressed in the organism . The genome size of the organism will be estimated by comparing the reassociation rate. The genome size will provide a significant information by which we aim to generate BAC genomic DNA library that will inform about GC content of the genome, repetitive sequences and level of polymorphism in the genome.

Stage II:

In this stage, whole genome random shotgun sequencing is proposed for the complete genome sequencing of the organism. This method utilizes comparative genomics protein coding and regulatory regions on the genome. The sequence-tagged BAC clones are mapped to the polytene chromosomes so as assembled scaffolds are directly localized in the genome of the organism  with specific orientations. We aim to produce a draft genome with the knowledge of genomic organization, to carry out the comparative genome analysis and the complete finishing of the genome is done. The finished genome is released to a public domain after getting approval by several committees.