Module 7 Molecular Genetics
Lesson 3.7.5
Lesson 5—Genetic Engineering
Get Focused
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Who owns your DNA? Will you always own your DNA? Who has the right to alter it? The Human Genome Project has now identified the entire sequence of human DNA. How will this important knowledge be used? Research companies have valuable patents on specific plant and animal DNA sequences developed in laboratories. Will they also patent human DNA sequences? This valuable knowledge of DNA sequences has been used to transform DNA through genetic engineering. Could genetic engineering lead to changes in the variation of the human population? Could this technology be used to create superhumans or superheros? Is this even a realistic, scientifically based question? Genetic engineering has much controversy surrounding it and creates many questions, as you can see above! Throughout this lesson, you will learn of the science behind genetic engineering, and then apply your knowledge to some of these questions.
This lesson will address the following focusing questions:
- What roles do restriction enzymes and ligases play in changing the genome?
- What are the implications of genetic manipulation?
This lesson should take approximately 120 minutes to complete.
Module 7: Lesson 5 Assignment
You will complete the following activities for assessment.
- Recreating the First Chimera
- Bt Corn Discussion Posting
- Review Questions
Once you have completed the learning activities for this lesson, you can complete the online assignment.
The other questions and activities in this lesson are not marked by the teacher; however, you should still attempt all of the work offered here. They are designed to help you review important information and build key concepts that may be applied in future lessons.
Here is a tutorial video for this lesson that you can watch if it suits your learning style. Bio30 tut#3.7.5 Genetic Engineering