Gene technology

Here is a cell, and in the cell’s nucleus there are DNA molecules, with the cell’s genes. The genes are recipes for various kinds of protein. The cell decodes the recipes, and builds proteins from amino acids. Cells have done this for several billion years, ever since life began on earth. Humans have also learned how to read these recipes.

We can study the order of the base pairs in the genes, and conclude what proteins the cell will build. And nowadays, humans are not only able to read protein recipes. We can write them too. Leon has an illness called type 1 diabetes. He is a diabetic.

This means his body cannot produce enough of the hormone insulin. Therefore he has to take an injection after every meal. In former times, insulin was extracted from pigs, and lots of pigs were needed to extract small amounts of insulin. It was an expensive medicine, and not only that, pig insulin is not quite identical to human insulin. Scientists tried to figure out another way of producing insulin: a method that was cheap, and that would produce an insulin better suited to humans.

They had an idea: Insulin is a protein, and proteins are built by cells that decode the genes in the cell nucleus. What if we can change the genes in a bacterion? rewrite the genes so that the bacterion starts to build insulin? The scientists started to study cells from people who did not have type 1 diabetes, cells which had that recipe for insulin in the cell nucleus. From these cells they managed to cut out genes that control the production of insulin.

They placed these genes, the insulin recipes, in a bacterion, so that the gene now told the bacterion to build insulin from amino acids. The insulin could then be collected to make medication for diabetics. This way they rewrote the protein recipes in the bacterion. And they had created bacteria that could work for humans, by producing medicine. Insulin now became better suited for humans; pigs were no longer necessary in the production; and the medicine became a lot cheaper.

This is an example of how knowledge of genes and DNA molecules is used for something practical. This is the technology of genes. Gene technology is used in many areas. For instance in agriculture. This is one way it might work.

This fish lives in the arctic ocean, and it has genes that help it endure low temperatures. With gene technology it’s possible to cut out such a gene and place it in this potato plant. This makes the potato endure cold better than before. We have created a new variety of potato, which is like ordinary potato, but with the help of gene technology it is changed, modified, so that it can be grown in colder locations. The potato has been genetically modified.

There are lots of other examples of animals and crops that are also altered genetically to grow faster, or give larger harvests. Genetically modified animals and plants can give more food at a lower cost. So, gene technology can give us better medication and cheaper food. We become healthier, and fewer people starve. But there are risks too, and it is difficult to tell what consequences gene technology will have.

Is it really good for human beings to eat genetically modified food? Can it contain substances that make us ill? And what happens in nature when we release plants and animals that have a new set of genes? Will the ecosystems be changed, and some species eliminated? Nature is a fragile balance where plants and animals depend on each other, and interplay with each other.

Perhaps genetically changed species might disturb that balance in ways difficult to predict. We simply do not know today what will be the consequences of gene technology in the long run. We need to be very careful. Gene technology brings both opportunities and risks.