biotechnology

• What is selective breeding?

  The process where humans breed plants/animals for a particular genetic characteristic by artificially selecting them.
• What is artificial selection?


  When humans determine which individuals in a population interbreed.
• What is genetic engineering?

  A process that modifies the genome of an organism by introducing a gene from another organism to give a desired characteristic.
• What is the process of genetic engineering?

  • Enzymes are used to isolate the required gene.
  • The gene is inserted into a vector.
  • The vector is used to insert into the required cells.
• What are the different types of cloning for plants?

  • Cuttings
  • Tissue culture
• What is the process of using plant cuttings?

  • Pieces are cut from a stem.
  • The pieces of stem are pushed into damp soil.
  • The pieces grow into new plants.
• What is the process of using tissue culture?

  • A leaf removed from a plant and groups of cells are removed.
  • The cells are added to agar jelly containing nutrients and hormones.
  • The culture is kept in sterile conditions at 20 degrees.
• Why is the culture kept in sterile conditions and at 20 degrees?

  • For optimum growth.
  • To prevent the growth of microorganism and decay.
• What are the types of animal cloning?

  • Embryo transplants
  • Animal cell cloning
• What is the process of embryo transplants?

  • Both the eggs and sperm are collected from the parent organisms.
  • The egg is fertilised through IVF.
  • It is grown to a 16 cell embryo
  • And this is then split into several separate segments and implanted into surrogate mothers.
• What is the process of animal cell cloning?

  • The nucleus is removed from an unfertilised egg cell.
  • The nucleus from an adult body cell is inserted into the egg cell.
  • An electric shock stimulates the egg cell to divide to form an embryo - the embryo contains the same genetic information as the adult skin cell.
  • When the embryo has developed into a ball of cells it is inserted into the womb of a female adult.