00:01
So let's talk a little bit about how gmos are created.
00:07
Gmo stands for genetically modified organism.
00:11
And the way that it's done in the laboratory is through the use of plasmids.
00:16
So plasmids are these circular pieces of dna.
00:21
And plasmids have these restriction sites here, which are basically sequences of dna that are recognized by a, certain kind of nucleus called restriction enzyme so the restriction enzymes are used to make precise cuts into the plasmids and then we can insert a gene of interest into that plasmid now we take this entire plasmids with the inserted gene of interest and we put it into the bacterium now from there we can use the bacterium to either produce the protein that is encoded by the gene by the dna that we just inserted or we can take that bacterium and insert it into a plant and have the plant pick up the gene of interest that way and this is the overall process of how recombinant dna so this step right here when you are combining different kinds of dna you are producing recombinant dna okay you are combining recombining dna and this is actually extremely useful.
01:34
It has been used, for example, to make insulin to treat diabetes.
01:43
So you just insert the insulin gene into the plasmid, put into the bacterium, and have the bacteria produce insulin.
01:51
And it is used a lot to improve food crops, make them resistance to disease, to drought, make them more nutritious...