What is different about recombination, cross-pollination and selective breeding?
Recombining DNA transcends both science forms. So in the case of genetic engineering we’re recombining DNA but in a very targeted sense. You’re taking a very specific gene from perhaps a soil bacterium like Bacillus thuringiensis and you’re combining into the corn genome so it’s still recombinant DNA but now you’re crossing the lines of two different species of organisms. What is the first step in creating recombinant DNA? The first step is to really identify the gene of interest, and through the long history of Bacillus thuringiensis with silkworms and European corn borers, scientists knew that there was some component in the DNA that produced a trait that had a very desirable end result. Somehow, through a process of working with DNA extracts from Bacillus thuringiensis, they were able to isolate out the single gene that cause the end results. What is the next step? Well, the next step is to figure out how to get the gene from a bacterium into the genome of a corn plant and make it a
