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Definition: genetic engineering from Processing Water, Wastewater, Residuals, and Excreta for Health and Environmental Protection: An Encyclopedic Dictionary

The process of inserting new genetic information into existing cells in order to modify an organism for the purpose of changing one of its characteristics.


Genetic Engineering

From International Encyclopedia of Public Health
The potential public health benefits of genetic engineering are considerable, but so too are the potential harms. Genetic engineering may help to promote health and prevent illness by increasing the quality and quantity of food, by cleaning up toxic environments, and by alleviating human health problems for existing and subsequent generations. Genetic engineering may also threaten human health, however, in producing unsafe foods, polluting our environment, and otherwise undermining or compromising our health status. But the ethics of genetic engineering is not reducible to a risk-benefit assessment, for issues of equity, control of the research agenda, and the possible misuse of the technology come into play, as do ethical concerns about human eugenics and enhancement, animal welfare, undermining the sanctity of nature, and playing God. Keywords Assisted reproductive techniques Biodegradation Bioethics Bioterrorism Communicable diseases Ethics Gene transfer techniques Genetic…
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Full text Article Genetic Engineering

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Biology & the Environment
Date: 1973 Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, involves directly manipulating an organism's genetic material. It uses recombinant DNA, in which two or more genetic sequences are combined in a way that would not ordinarily occur in nature. The origin of this field is attributed to…
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From Encyclopedia of Ethics
Genetic engineering involves directly altering the genetic structure of an organism in order to provide that organism with traits that are deemed useful or desirable by those doing the altering. For centuries, plant and animal breeders have attempted to produce organisms with useful or desirable…
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Full text Article Genetic Engineering

From Black's Medical Dictionary, 43rd Edition
Genetic engineering, or recombinant DNA technology, is the process of changing the genetic material of a cell (see CELLS ). GENES from one cell – for example, a human cell – can be inserted into another cell, usually a bacterium (see BACTERIA ), and made to function. It is now possible to insert the…
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
All-inclusive term that describes the deliberate manipulation of genetic material by biochemical techniques. It is often achieved by the introduction of new DNA , usually by means of a virus or plasmid . This can be for pure research, gene therapy , or to breed functionally specific plants, animals, …
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic-acid molecules in order to modify an organism or population of organisms. The term initially meant any of a wide range of techniques for modifying or manipulating organisms through heredity and reproduction. Now the…
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the use of various methods to manipulate the DNA (genetic material) of cells to change hereditary traits or produce biological products. The techniques include the use of hybridomas (hybrids of rapidly multiplying cancer cells and of cells that make a desired antibody) to make monoclonal antibodies…
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Full text Article Genetic Engineering

From Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health
Genetic engineering involves altering the genetic structure of embryonic cells or vectors to provide them with desired traits or to eliminate undesirable traits. For thousands of years, humans have engaged in primitive forms of genetic engineering. They have chosen plants or animals with survival…
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Full text Article Genetic Engineering

From Brenner's Encyclopedia of Genetics
Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genetic material by either molecular biological techniques or by selective breeding. While selective breeding has been practiced for thousands of years (domestication of the dog, farming corn, brewer’s yeast), the manipulation of genetic material in vitro…
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From The Macquarie Dictionary
the modification of an organism's genes through the direct isolation and transference of DNA material from one organism to another. genetically engineered adjective Early genetic engineering was used to produce synthetic human insulin from bacteria. The concept was further developed with the…
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Full text Article genetic engineering

From Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary
Transference of genetic material from the genes of one species to those of another by uniting a portion of the DNA of one organism with extranuclear sections of DNA from another organism (also called gene-splicing). Such recombinant molecules will replicate in the same way as in normal DNA behavior. …
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