Of or relating to the science of genetics; SYN. genetical.

Množina: genetic disorders

Množina: genetic engineerings

Deliberate manipulation of genetic material by biochemical techniques. It is often achieved by the introduction of new DNA, usually by means of a virus or plasmid. This can be for pure research or to breed functionally specific plants, animals, or bacteria. These organisms with a foreign gene added are said to be transgenic (see transgenic organism). At the beginning of 1995 more than 60 plant species had been genetically engineered, and nearly 3,000 transgenic crops had been field-tested.
practical uses.
In genetic engineering, the splicing and reconciliation of genes is used to increase knowledge of cell function and reproduction, but it can also achieve practical ends. For example, plants grown for food could be given the ability to fix nitrogen, found in some bacteria, and so reduce the need for expensive fertilizers, or simple bacteria may be modified to produce rare drugs. A foreign gene can be inserted into laboratory cultures of bacteria to generate commercial biological products, such as synthetic insulin, hepatitis-B vaccine, and interferon. Gene splicing was invented 1973 by the US scientists Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer, and patented in the US 1984.
new developments.
Developments in genetic engineering have led to the production of growth hormone, and a number of other bone-marrow stimulating hormones. New strains of animals have also been produced; a new strain of mouse was patented in the US 1989 (the application was rejected in the European Patent Office). A vaccine against a sheep parasite (a larval tapeworm) has been developed by genetic engineering; most existing vaccines protect against bacteria and viruses. The first genetically engineered food went on sale 1994; the “Flavr Savr” tomato, produced by the US biotechnology company Calgene, was available in California and Chicago.
safety measures.
There is a risk that when transplanting genes between different types of bacteria (Escherichia coli, which lives in the human intestine, is often used) new and harmful strains might be produced. For this reason strict safety precautions are observed, and the altered bacteria are disabled in some way so they are unable to exist outside the laboratory.
The technology of preparing recombinant DNA in vitro by cutting up DNA molecules and splicing together fragments from more than one organism; SYN. gene-splicing, recombinant DNA technology.

Množina: genetically modified foods

Množina: geneticists

A scientist who specializes in genetics.

genetics je nebrojiva imenica

The science of heredity that attempts to explain how characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next. The founder of genetics was Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel, whose experiments with peas showed that inheritance of characteristics takes place by means of discrete “particles”, later called genes.
Before Mendel, it had been assumed that the characteristics of the two parents were blended during inheritance, but Mendel showed that the genes remain intact, although their combinations change. Since Mendel, genetics has advanced greatly, first through breeding experiments and light-microscope observations (classical genetics), later by means of biochemical and electron-microscope studies (molecular genetics).
In 1944, Oswald Avery, Colin McLeod, and Maclyn McCarty showed that the genetic material was deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and not protein as was previously thought. A further breakthrough was made when, in 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their molecular model for the structure of DNA, the double helix, based on X-ray diffraction photographs. The following decade saw cracking of the genetic code. The genetic code is said to be universal since the same code applies to all organisms from bacteria and viruses to higher plants and animals, including humans. Today the deliberate manipulation of genes by biochemical techniques, or genetic engineering, is commonplace. See also genotype, phenotype, and monohybrid inheritance.
The branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms; SYN. genetic science.