Dna and Genetic Engineering Humans Essay

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History of Genetic Engineering Humans have a long history of experience with the biotechnology of artificial selection. The first known domesticated species is the dog (Scarre, 2005). Traits originally selected for included docility and obedience, among others. Another species humans modified through selective breeding is cattle. Still today bulls are selected for their resilience and manageability. The harvesting of plants with specific traits eventually led to plant domestication and farming. Modern wheat has three times the number of genes than its original wild form. This change and other came about through long-term, careful manipulation through artificial selection by generations of humans
(Reiss and Straughan, 1996). Humans have recognized the structure of genes for a minute fraction of their history, yet in this time have progressed farther in their manipulation of genes than in the past 14,000 years
(Scarre, 2005). In 1857 Gregor Mendel began his experiments with the inheritance patterns of peas that led him to the theory that genes control our physical structure. He even deduced that some genes are dominant while others are recessive (Campbell and Reece, 2005). Forty-five years later in 1902 Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri hypothesized that chromosomes carry genetic information. By 1953 the combined research of Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins allowed Crick and Watson to determine the structure