What is Genetic Engineering?
Genetic engineering is the science of modification of genes in cells. Genes are collections of DNA molecules that comprise the code that determines the function and reproductive pattern of cells. Together with hormones and other chemical messengers, developed and naturally recombined over millions of years, genes determine everything about an organism. Genetic engineers modify gene patterns in cells by implanting genes or DNA from one organism into another organism.
Dna structure.
Caenorhabditis elegans
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) started studying the transmission of characteristics, but his studies remained unknown until 1900, when three scientists ,who didn't each other, coincidentally started research on Mendel's studies and obtained the same results.
In 1909, the biologist Thomas Morgan concluded that the characteristics were transmitted through genes. DNA was only discovered in 1944 by Osvald Avery, and in 1953 the structure of the DNA was confirmed. The first clone of a vertebrate was of a frog, which was born in 1967.
However Genetic Engineering was born in 1973, when two American scientists, Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer, transferred genes from one bacterium into another. In 1985 started an international effort to mape the whole human genetic code. The first animal's gene to be completely mapped was an one millimeter worm called Caenorhabditis elegans, which genetic map was completed in 1998.