Genomics, Genetic engineering

Genomics, Genetic engineering Overview

Genetic engineering deals with the application of knowledge from genomics which is the study of an organism’s genes also known as genomes. It looks into how these genes interact within and outside the organism. Genetic engineering applies insight from genomics to alter an organism’s genes/DNA. This has been proven to be beneficial. In agriculture, genetic engineering is applied to improve the quality and yield of crops by combining traits from different crops to produce high yielding, resilient and more nutritional varieties. This is particularly relevant to the call for sustainable food production in order to meet the world’s growing needs. The discipline has also been helpful in medicine for producing cancer therapies and medical solutions for other ailments like sickle cell anaemia. Bacterium was the first genetically modified organism in 1973.
https://tengrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/smart-agriculture-iot-with-hand-planting-tree-background_53876-124627-1.jpg
Although beneficial, genetic engineering remains controversial especially in agriculture where some experts argue that that the consumption of genetically modified food may be cancerous. Also, the field is expensive and requires heavy funding and years (about a decade or more) to produce useful and replicable results. There are also concerns around safety, consent, equity and justice. Nonetheless, Tengrain Science encourages collaborative research spaces for new findings in the area of agricultural development.