Roshan Biju George*

K. V. Pendharkar College of Arts, Science and Commerce (Autonomous), Dombivli (East), V (Affiliated to Mumbai University), NAAC “A” Grade, India

*Corresponding Author: Roshan Biju George, K. V. Pendharkar College of Arts, Science and Commerce (Autonomous), Dombivli (East), V (Affiliated to Mumbai University), NAAC “A” Grade, India.

Received: January 06, 2023; Published: January 25, 2023

Introduction

To date, scientists have genetically engineered bacteria that produce various kinds of drugs, crops with resistance various kinds of pests and diseases, and beagles that glow in the dark. While these are all relatively recent advances in scientific technology, humans have been altering the genetics of organisms for over 30,000 years. How did the original practice of selective breeding and artificial selection evolve into the concept of genetically modified organisms, as we know it today? Innovators and scientists, who wanted to get rid of the world’s most critical problems, have paved the way for GMOs — a path that leads to an unimaginable array of benefits, but also raises extremely important questions. Most of the foods we eat today were created through traditional breeding methods. But changing plants and animals through traditional breeding can take a long time, and it is difficult to make very specific changes. An example is the dog which is considered to be the first organism which was artificially selected by our ancestors. Wild wolves from East Asia joined our ancestors as scavengers when they were still hunters and gatherers. They were domesticated and artificially selected for specific traits. Over the years, so many different traits like height, colour, behaviour, strength, docility, etc was artificially selected that now we have kinds of dogs which do not resemble wolves at all. Genetic engineering allowed plant breeders to take a desirable trait found in nature and transfer it from one plant or organism to the plant they wanted to improve, as well as make changes to an existing trait in a plant they were developing. After scientists developed genetic engineering in the 1970s, they were able to make similar changes in a more specific way and in a shorter amount of time. Genetically modified crops were first introduced in USA in early 1990s and FlavrSavr tomato became the first transgenic crop to be approved by the U.S Department of Agriculture. Soon Bt corn was also approved. Bt cotton was approved in India in the early 2000s which was followed by immense benefits and profits in the cotton industry as the net income increased and there was a profitable yield with less use of pesticides.

References

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Citation

Citation: Roshan Biju George. “The Journey of Genetically Modified Crops - A Review".Acta Scientific Biotechnology 4.2 (2022): 18-24.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Roshan Biju George. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.