- Genetic engineering, sometimes called genetic modification, is the process of altering the DNA in an organism’s genome.
- This may mean changing one base pair (A-T or C-G), deleting a whole region of DNA, or introducing an additional copy of a gene.
- It may also mean extracting DNA from another organism’s genome and combining it with the DNA of that individual.
- Genetic engineering is used by scientists to enhance or modify the characteristics of an individual organism.
- Genetic engineering can be applied to any organism, from a virus to a sheep.
- For example, genetic engineering can be used to produce plants that have a higher nutritional value or can tolerate exposure to herbicides.
- Changing the genome enables engineers to give desirable properties to different organisms. Organisms created by genetic engineering are called genetically modified organisms (GMOs).