Genetic engineering in history

Genetic engineering refers to the process of manipulating genes in humans, animals or plants in order to create an organism with new genetic characteristics, such as crop that is resistant to pests or an animal which resists cancer.

The origins of biotechnology culminated with the birth of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering based on genetics, a science started from the early 1900’s based on experiments by the Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel.

Gregor Mendel

In an 1865 meeting of the Natural Sciences Society of Brno, Mendel presented the first account of his decade-long study of plant hybridization. His paper one of those singular moments in science, made its way into Society’s publication a year later but went completely unnoticed.

In 1944, DNA is identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty.

Later two important key events happened. One was the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and the other was the 1973 discovery by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique by which a section of DNA was cut from the plasmid of an E. coli bacterium and transferred into the DNA of another.

Boyer, a professor at University of California, San Francisco was working on enzymes capable of cutting DNA at specific sequences and Cohen who was a faculty member at Stanford was studying the introduction of extrachromosomal antibiotic elements in host bacteria.

During the late 1970’s, researchers used recombinant DNA to engineer bacteria to produce small quantities of insulin and interferon.

One of the key scientific figures that attempted to highlight the promising aspects of genetic engineering was Joshua Lederberg, a Stanford professor and Nobel laureate.

In 1980, green genetic engineering was born. Genetic material is introduced into cell cultures for the first time ever with the aid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

In 1982, The U.S Food and Drug Administration approve the first genetically engineered drug, Genentech’s Humulin, a form of human insulin produced by bacteria.

Fifteen nears later corn and soybeans have been genetically engineered to secret human antibodies for herpes simplex and for the treating cancer patients.

In 1987, the first field tests of genetically engineered crops (tobacco and tomato) are conducted in the United States. Committee of the national Academy of Sciences concluded that transferring genes between species of organisms posed no serious environmental hazards.

In year 2000, International Biosafety Protocol is approved by 130 countries at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada. The protocol agrees upon labeling of genetically engineered crops.
Genetic engineering in history

Gregor Johann Mendel – Father of genetics

Johann Mendel was an Augustinian monk and botanist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.

Johann Mendel was born on July 22, 1822 into a poor family. He was born in Heinzendorf, a village near the border between northern Moravia and Silesia, in Austria.

He was the son of poor family and attended the local schools.

He was ordained into the priesthood in August of 1847 and immediately went to work as a pastor.

In 1851 he was sent to the University of Vienna to study botany, chemistry, physics and zoology, and returning to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics.

Mendel began his scientific experiments after his return from Vienna with the hybrid cultivation of pea plants in 1856. His research involved careful planning, necessitated the use of thousands of experimental plants, and by his own account, extended over eight years.

Much of the early works in inheritance developed in the Middle East were destroyed. Mendel rediscovered the rules of heredity by observing the passage of trait in plants grown the monastery.

After spending eight years carrying out experimental work in the monastery garden, he presented his work in a series of two lectures at the meetings of the Association for Natural Research in Brno on the evenings of February 8th and March 8th, 1865.

He published the work as “Experiments in Plant Hybridization” in the society’s Proceeding in 1866.

His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

He died on January 6, 1884 at the age of 62. Mendel's attraction to research was based on his love of nature.

He was not only interested in plants, but also in meteorology and theories of evolution. Mendel often wondered how plants obtained atypical characteristics. Mendel was being honored for the work with plant hybrids that had not seemed very important during his life.
Gregor Johann Mendel – Father of genetics