Human Manipulations of Genetic Transfer and its Biological Implications
For years, humans have been able to manipulate the alleles in animals for favourable traits through the use of selective breeding. But, now that technology has become so advanced, humans have developed a new process of manipulating the gene transfer through transgenesis, where scientists can create new alleles in animals.
This essay shows how the selective breeding method and transgenesis method are carried out on the Belgian Blue Cattle and the Spidergoat.
Selective Breeding in Belgian Blue Cattle
Selective Breeding is a process where individuals who have desirable traits are selected by breeders to mate and produce offspring who also have the desirable trait.(1) In Belgian Blue cattle, the trait that breeders are wanting to select for is Muscular Hypertrophy or “Double Muscling” which is a recessive allele and expressed when it is homozygous.(2) The double muscling occurs naturally due to a mutation where 11 nucleotides are deleted in the myostatin protein that regulates the growth of muscles, produced in muscle cells.(8) This causes the myostatin protein to not work and therefore the Belgian Blue has an increase in lean muscle growth. Cattle with “double muscling” are selected by breeders through the selective breeding process for the extra meat available due to the mutation. The increased meat produced is good for beef production and …show more content…
2. The next stage is to source the transgene, the spider silk gene, to create the gene construct. It can either be extracted from the Golden Orb spider or from a lab that know the gene sequence and can create it on
For years, humans have been able to manipulate the alleles in animals for favourable traits through the use of selective breeding. But, now that technology has become so advanced, humans have developed a new process of manipulating the gene transfer through transgenesis, where scientists can create new alleles in animals.
This essay shows how the selective breeding method and transgenesis method are carried out on the Belgian Blue Cattle and the Spidergoat.
Selective Breeding in Belgian Blue Cattle
Selective Breeding is a process where individuals who have desirable traits are selected by breeders to mate and produce offspring who also have the desirable trait.(1) In Belgian Blue cattle, the trait that breeders are wanting to select for is Muscular Hypertrophy or “Double Muscling” which is a recessive allele and expressed when it is homozygous.(2) The double muscling occurs naturally due to a mutation where 11 nucleotides are deleted in the myostatin protein that regulates the growth of muscles, produced in muscle cells.(8) This causes the myostatin protein to not work and therefore the Belgian Blue has an increase in lean muscle growth. Cattle with “double muscling” are selected by breeders through the selective breeding process for the extra meat available due to the mutation. The increased meat produced is good for beef production and …show more content…
2. The next stage is to source the transgene, the spider silk gene, to create the gene construct. It can either be extracted from the Golden Orb spider or from a lab that know the gene sequence and can create it on