Although a big ethical debate in today’s society genetic modification of plants have been going on for ages. The last ten thousand years of history civilizations such as Babylon, Maya and Incas, just to name a few, have been selectively breeding crops since the time of the farming revolution. The size and appearance of these modern day crops are vastly different than their ancient ancestor’s appearance and attributes. For instance the first corn was about one hundredth the size of what it is today. Corn’s wild ancestor was a grass called teosinte which has the same number of chromosomes and arrangement of genes as modern day maize. Interestingly enough these two can be cross bred to form hybrids that can reproduce naturally. Today the heated topic of GMO’s raises an ethical dilemma of safety and nutrition. Although many studies by top research laboratories deem GMO’s as safe for human consumption. The first GMO planted was an antibiotic-resistant tobacco plant in 1982. Field trials happened in 1986 in the USA where tobacco plants were engineered for herbicide resistance, after which in 1987; company Plant Genetic Systems was the first company to engineer an insect-resistant tobacco plant by introducing genes that produced insecticidal…show more content… There are multiple ways to manipulate genetic code in today’s scientific advancements. The most popular up in till recently was Biolistic Particle Delivery System (BPDS). BPDS directs high energy particles of DNA attached to gold or tungsten into the plant cells or tissue with immense pressure. These particles penetrate through the cell wall and membrane after which the DNA detaches from the metal and becomes integrated with the plants DNA in the nucleus. This method has been used to successfully apply genes to crops such as wheat and corn. The only downside to this method is that damage to the cell tissue can
