What are the proposed benefits of biotechnological methods of genetic engineering?
According to the FDA, biotechnological methods of genetic engineering are techniques that plant breeders have to make direct modifications of DNA, a living thing’s genetic materials. In applying such methods, scientists make copies to genes for desired traits and introduce the gene copy into an organism such as a food crop. The new gene is usually a single gene whose function is well understood. These new techniques avoid one of the major problems encountered by plant breeders who use cross hybridization, including no unwanted or undesirable genes are introduced with the desired gene. Additionally, scientists can make copies of genes from any organism – plant, animal, or microbe – which may yield a desired trait and introduce that gene into a food crop.
