Learning DNA Coding from the very basic 101

[xkm1948]

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www.dnadecoded.org

Just came across this website that is surprisingly good at educating about genomic coding to high school kids.

If you have a young one these are great skills you can get them to pick up.

 

[biffzinker]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Vayra86]

Nice link, have a like

 

[Readlight]

Is that true in future there will be modified, different food.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

There already is. Drought resistant strains of corn, for example. Without all of the crop engineering we've done (selective breeding and genome editing), Earth wouldn't be able to sustain a population of 7 billion humans.

Can easily see the effect graphed here:

Three segments:
1) human population constrained by food supply (nomadic)
2) human population growth driven by increased food supply (domestication and irrigation)
3) human population growth drive by a surplus of food (reduction in wars, advancements in medicine, risk mitigation, global trade, selective breeding, and genome editing)

 

[xkm1948]

Is that true in future there will be modified, different food.

The majority of the commercially available food, be it raw produce or processed originated from GMOs these days. There is no why in hell you can feed the current human population using non-modified crops.

GMOs are the good ones. Without GMO the usuage of chemical based fertilizer would quadrople easily. The usage of water would increase expoentially. And most importantly the food yield AND quality would decrease significantly. Contrary to what trending main stream media would make you believe, the so called "organic farming" would end up causing more harm to environment simply because the very low efficiency.

For more GMO vs organic I would recommend watching this:

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Fun fact: bananas (Cavendish) are all clones. The seeds have been bred out of them. This is also the second species of bananas that were commercially produced: the first (Gros Michel) is now extinct due to an aggressive fungus which is an omnipresent threat to the banana species sold today (one mutation away from another extinction):

Why bananas as we know them might go extinct (again) - CNN

A fungal disease is threatening banana plantations worldwide, and it's a case of history repeating itself.

www.cnn.com

Corn, as you know it, is also selectively bred. It's not a species that exists naturally. No humans, what is known as corn would be gone in a few years:

When humans go extinct: How life will evolve after we're gone

The sixth extinction could wipe out up to half of Earth's species. Michael Tennesen tells us what might happen next

www.salon.com

"New plants will evolve to vanquish our monocultures of corn, wheat, and rice. With far fewer animals around, those species that survive the bottleneck of extinction will move into newly abandoned spaces. With little competition, they will thrive and rapidly evolve."

Cattle (depends on use), hogs (thinness of hair), and dogs (demonstrated to be able to read human emotions) also bare hallmarks of selective breeding.

 

[bug]

Is that true in future there will be modified, different food.

People have been selecting and crossing crops since we discovered agriculture. So what you're eating right now is modified and different from what the nature gives us spontaneously. Same for livestock and poultry.

 

[R-T-B]

selective breeding.

Different than GMO, bears pointing out. But I agree with the end claim.

 

[Readlight]

People have been selecting and crossing crops since we discovered agriculture. So what you're eating right now is modified and different from what the nature gives us spontaneously. Same for livestock and poultry.

I ok i mostly haw grown up in hard-working food-producing green farm. when this all-new toxic food showed up in markets.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Different than GMO, bears pointing out. But I agree with the end claim.

Depends on what modifying was done. Some can be attained with selective breeding over a very long period of time and some can't (splicing in code from another species).

I ok i mostly haw grown up in hard-working food-producing green farm. when this all-new toxic food showed up in markets.

In most countries, it's illegal to sell toxic food. GMO/selective breeding can reduce toxicity by reducing the need for chemical treatments.

 

[R-T-B]

Depends on what modifying was done. Some can be attained with selective breeding over a very long period of time and some can't (splicing in code from another species).

My point wasn't whether or not it could be done, but those are different practices by definition.

 

[xkm1948]

My point wasn't whether or not it could be done, but those are different practices by definition.

Genome analysis assisted guided breeding is the best/most accepted practice these days in livestock and crops.


Basically it is like this:

(In terms of easily acceptable by public)

Genetically modifying microbiome > Genome Assisted Breeding > Genome Deletion Editing (removing bad or undesirable traits) > Genome Addition Editing (Splicing in synthetic genetic elements)

This is why microbiome based research is one of the hottest topic right now, as it can achieve highly desirable end results through modifying the co-existent bacteria of plant/animal. The plants/animals remain "GMO Free" and they can easily be sold for way higher price as "organic"


Only exception is yeast. It has been modified to the point beyond return in most biotech companies and they usually have their own secret stain of yeast that are even barcoded for various functions. Yeast genome engineering is amazing and terrifying at the same time...