All creatures are many of billions of microscopic cells. Inside
each cell, there is a piece of DNA. DNA is passed from generation to generation,
which passes on the information needed by the creature to survive.
Genetic modifying (GM), genetic engineering (GE) and genetic
manipulating (GM) all mean the same thing: The use of modern biotechnology
techniques to changes DNA structures of an organism. A genetically modified
organism (GMO) is an organism that has been changed using the biotechnologies.
Traditionally, specific “applications” have been added to
the animal’s “genetic coding” by breeding. The process of the traditional
breeding methods involve finding other organisms with the specified traits and
crossing them with each other; however, that method had a shorter success rate
than our technological methods. It also took much longer because they had to
find organism’s that were compatible with the one they were trying to modify.
As well, trying to breed for a specific trait was hard because they couldn’t
control exactly what traits came over; both good and bad came over.
So, to sum up, genetic
modifying/engineering/manipulating is adding, deleting or substituting pieces
of one organism’s DNA with another’s.
