Shubin reveals the biological “law of everything” on page 175. This law states that every living thing on the planet has parents. He also mentions that this can one day be changed thanks to cloning, biological engineering, or some technology yet to be invented. Discuss the implications of artificial birth or creating an organism without parents. What are some advantages to being adjust a creature’s make-up? What are the positive and negative effects that this can have on evolutionary history since, among other reasons, it won’t have a real bloodline to any other creature?
(Alex Sapozhnikov marijio@gmail.com)
Some advantages of using cloning or engineering to create organisms without parents are that the organism can be made with ideal traits. For example, biological engineering is often used to make animals with more fat. This can be very advantageous for people in the meat industry who are looking to make more money. Cloning and biological engineering can be used for research, and also to make organisms (usually animals) that can donate organs or blood for transplants. By using cloning and biological engineering for these purposes, we have the power to make an incredible amount of progress and save many lives (McGee, G). On the other hand, there are many negative implication in using cloning and biological engineering. For example, many people have moral issue with creating something that is not natural. Cloning and biological engineering can also cause a loss of diversity in genes that is created by reproducing from two parents (Oracle). In addition, cloning is not a sure thing. There are many things that could go wrong in development that could be unsafe.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that organisms without a bloodline to other creatures created by cloning and biological engineering could have a positive effect on evolutionary history. If organisms can be safely created with ideal traits, and could be created with the ability to reproduce with similar organisms that were naturally created, that particular species could eventually evolve to have the favorable characteristic introduced by the cloned or engineered organism. This would benefit the species that has a genetically engineered organisms because through evolution, it would help the species evolve so that it could survive and reproduce more successfully. This could benefit entire communities or ecosystems.
On the other hand, organisms created by biological engineering and cloning could have a negative impact on evolutionary history. It is possible that the newly introduced organisms could have the same effect as an introduced species. This means that it could take the niches of other organisms and leave them with a problem, or it could create other problems for the community. Cloning and biological engineering could also have a negative impact on evolutionary history because there are often mutants and deformations (McGee, G). If many organisms are made deformed and reproduce, it could create a species in which every organisms has the deformity. It would be easier to pass on “bad” genes because in a cloned or genetically engineered organism, there is not the chance for diversity of genes.
Sources:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/mcgee.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122429/ethics/disadvantages.htm
Marissa Lobl marissa.lobl@gmail.com
Shubin actually states that the law of everything is that we are all genetically modified descendants of our parents OR parental genetic information. Thus, parents do not have to be a living, full-functioning being. Rather, parents can be strands of DNA implanted within a uterus that would undergo mitotic divisions to create an offspring. Cloning is the process of taking ones DNA and creating a second living organism out of it. By doing so, the organism technically has a parent (the DNA that came from the donor of the DNA) even though it is not a full functioning organism.
ReplyDeleteArtificial birth without parents has its advantages and disadvantages. Artificial birth can be good in the case of genetic engineering as it creates a “perfect” organism. Perfect refers to the fact that the organism has the qualities that are desired by whoever wants to create the organism. For example, “infectious diseases can be treated by implanting genes that code for antiviral proteins specific to each antigen” (http://www.biology-online.org/2/13_genetic_engineering.htm). Thus, through genetic engineering, offspring can contain the necessary genes in order to produce proteins that can fight against antigens. Other than having desired traits that can be beneficial to the organism, genetic engineering can also increase genetic diversity. By doing so, many different types of organisms that are adaptive to a single environment can live a quality life because they have the proper traits to perform everyday tasks. Artificial birth is also a disadvantage in the case of imprinting, as we saw in Chapter 51 of Campbell. Imprinting is a major response during the critical period of an individual. Imprinting is “the formation at a specific stage in life of a long-lasting behavioral response to a particular individual or object” (1126). When a newborn organism has a parent, it will copy the parent and everything the parent will do. By doing so, the newborn develops certain behaviors that occur at specific times. In Konrad Lorenz’s experiment with graylag geese, he discovered that the geese would recognize him as a “mother”. Thus, the geese would follow Lorenz around. They would never follow any other geese; they only followed Lorenz and began learning behavioral responses. Thus, by genetically engineering an organism without a mother, the organism would have no mother or father-like figure to follow and learn from in its early stages of life. Although the geese had Konrad Lorenz to follow, Lorenz did not provide the best parenthood as he was unable to show the geese how to be like geese. If the geese had parents, the geese would learn to fly and scavenge for food at an earlier age. A genetically engineered organism is unable to learn essential methods of life without parents to imprint on.
By creating two new organisms that has desirable traits, all future offspring of these organisms will contain the same traits as these parents. By doing so, new generations of these “perfect” offspring will be created. Evolution, as seen in history, is more of a trial and error process. Over generations certain offspring contain certain traits that differ that may be advantageous or disadvantageous. Based on this, the offspring can reproduce and create offspring with the same traits, or an offspring with a variation of the traits possessed by the parents. Advantageous traits usually stay within the generations whereas disadvantageous traits make their way out of the picture. Thus, by creating two new parents that are genetically engineered, if they were to reproduce, their offspring can still contain mutations. Evolution will continue to occur through mutations and matching up DNA. It will only be the genetically engineered organisms that will contain the desired trait. Evolution will continue to occur even if there was no bloodline before the parents.
Sources:
http://www.biology-online.org/2/13_genetic_engineering.htm
Campbell (Chapter 51)
Shreeraj patel
shreeraj.patel1@gmail.com
Different research from genetic engineering has resulted in a numerous benefits including those above such and DNA implementation that Shreeraj has mentioned. However, as shocking as it may seem, the early stages of adjusting makeups of different organisms happens in our life and everyone who buys groceries from any mart are affected by it. Yes, I am refering to genetically modified food. The most common ones include herbicide and insect resistant plants derived from selectively breeding certain species of plants or animals based on its phenotype and genotype to yield maximum possible results. Genotypes are often determined through testcorsses which shows different types of inheritance such as heterozygous, homozygous, polygenic inheritance. Or even better, through the use of the recombinant DNA technology that allows this modification process to take place with even more precision. (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml)
ReplyDeleteAlthough these may help the farms and people in a short run by increasing the survival rate of plants by increasing the compatibility of an organisms to its current environment, there is risk of destroying the variations that exist within a given population. By destroying different variations through selective breeding, any sudden change in the environment may lead to the extinction of that certain orgnisms because the mutation may may not be quick enough give variation able to withstand the new environmental condition. Furthermore, nature has undergone coevolution leading to a wide connection of organisms of different population a complex yet delicate food web. By selectively breeding a certain organism within the web, it may lead to not only extinction of the modified organisms but those that are are dependent on that organism as well.
Currently, there are various methods of DNA modication which pertains to our study in AP biology. One is through careful use of the mutation and selectively mating certain mutation that yields the maximum benefit. Another process includes the gene flow(to be covered in our evolution unit) which is the transfer of gene from one population to another through sexual reproduction than natural selection. Genetic hybridization (this is extra fun fact that seems counter our definition of evolution...but its not evolution so^^) This process creates a hybrid which can be intervarietal, interspecific, and intergeneric. This process, unlike evolution, creates a new specie within one generation. This process has been attributed to the creation of thousands of species in the natural world. The final type of modification for purpose of our study includes the modification of gene expression by influencing the parts of DNA that is read and transcribed into RNA then changed to protein. (http://www.fbae.org/2009/FBAE/website/special-topics_biotech_basics_gm_ge.html)
Kevin Jeon
Bboybyung@gmail.com