Transgenic Crop Research. Biological & Biomedical Sciences Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Transgenic Crop Research
Student’s Name
University
Course
Professor
Date
Impacts of Transgenic Crops On the Environment
Genetic modification is an area of gene technology concerned with the alteration of the genetic make-up of organisms to achieve desired traits. Modification of plants is estimated to have begun 10,000 years ago, where humans began practicing artificial selection and selective breeding (Raman, 2017). Raman (2017) also states that modern genetic modification began with the discovery of genetic material in 1946. The first genetically modified organism was engineered in 1973 following a chain of successful experiments by two researchers named Boyer and Cohen (Raman, 2017). As per Bawa & Anilakumar (2012) and Raman (2017), tobacco and petunia were the first plants to be genetically engineered in 1983. The two sources also go on to state that the Flavr Savr tomato was the first transgenic crop to be approved for human intake by the FDA in 1994. The utilization of transgenic plants has resulted in a crop yield increase of 370 million tons (Raman, 2017). Prominent transgenic crops are maize, soybeans, cotton, and canola. In 2015, 48% of maize, canola, soy, and cotton that were grown globally were genetically modified (Brookes & Barfoot, 2017). This shows the adoption of transgenic crops has been profound within a relatively short time.