What are some current recombinant technologies? What are some practical applications of nucleic acid technolog

Question

technology?*

// What legal and ethical problems may arise from these applications?


___________________
Heredity and Evolution -- Molecular Genetics
(Topic: Nucleic Acid Technology and Applications)

Answer 1

One of the primary commercial uses to which recombinant DNA technology has been put for decades is the production of medicines. Insulin, for example, first began to be produced from a modified e.coli cell in 1978 and this is now how almost all of it is made. Now any number of things are produced in a similar manner.

Another major use to which such technology is put today is the production of crops which can grow under different harsh conditions. Some plants have been produced which are not affected by certain highly effective pesticides, and some have been developed to grow in particularly hot or dry climates to help alleviate hunger in some parts of the world.

The two biggest problems are containment (there have been many instances of supposedly controlled lifeforms escaping into the wild and spreading their drastically altered DNA) and unintended consequences (lifeforms are complex and often changing one thing changes another). Two prototypical examples of these fiascoes are StarLink corn (which caused a national recall of all corn-related products and even so some was consumed by humans before it was tested and determined safe) and Showa Denko tryptophan (the wildly popular nutritional supplement somehow killed seven people and caused a ban which lasts to this day).

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Recombinant Technologies

Answer 3

Interesting: You are asking a question about creationism and actually calling it a scientific question? Hmmm ... ALSO, the pedantic constraints of how the question is framed, renders useless any basic platform for argument. But, anyway -- The patchwork quilt of Creation science is no more or less explainable to the causes of any technological development than are the faulty theories of Darwinism. Maybe you could be more specific? Next time ...