Question

.   Subsequently, answer the following:

• (a) How does the DNA in the synthetic organisms differ from DNA in naturally-occurring microorganisms?
• (b) What do you think we’ve learned from these experiments?
• (c) In your opinion, what are the inherent risks of this research to human health or to the environment, if any?

Answer 1

A) DNA in synthetic organisms will be altered and designed as per our needs. They will be specific and will be used to produce the products that which are highly required by human. Such organisms contain only the genes which are needed to produce the required products. But in case of naturally occuring microbes, the DNA will not be specific and predictable. It may contain some genes which are not preferred by the human. These are being cut off while we take those DNA for some genetic experiments.

B) These experiments on synthetic organisms shows us how we can manipulate the genetic composition of an organism or a microbe according to our needs. This also shows the high development of genetic engineering and DNA technologies for producing many products which cannot be synthesized chemically in the laboratories.

C) There is a potential risk factor in genetic experiments. If the genetically modified organisms somehow manages to escape from the lab and reaches the normal environment, it will not be a good thing. If the organism is something which can cause health issues or other environmental problems, then it becomes very critical. We can't controll their growth in the normal environment as we do in the laboratories. Then these organisms will multiply very fastly and cause various hazards. For example, if we are making a bacterial colony by inserting the antibiotic resistance gene for medical research. Then that colony of bacteria will be resistant to antibiotics. If these bacteria escapes to the outside and become virulent, then we can't control them using antibiotics. This kind of things will become a very serious concerns of genetic research.