GMOs are organisms that have been scientifically altered in some way to make it "better." An example would be making a crop resistant to certain environmental factors or stresses. If a crop could only grow during the summer because of its inability to tolerate cold weather, a gene from something that lives in cold weather and insert it into a plant. This seems like it would be the fix for all of our problems, however, there is more to it than just that. For example, say a gene from fish was inserted into corn DNA and someone who is allergic to corn picks up a piece at the supermarket and becomes extremely ill because it is not required to have a GM sticker on food in the United States. However, in other countries around the world these foods are required to notify customers by placing a sticker on the item. There is also a potential for a "superweed" to be created on accident which would ravage the world's food supply. These controversies are similar to the ones raised on testing Genetic modification in humans. What if a Frankenstein is created? What about zombies? Although most Geneticists are fairly confidant nothing like this will happen, the general public remains worried.
In the GMO identification lab we are testing a food to see if it contains the Tumor Inducing plasmid that over 90% of all Genetically Modified foods contain. This is used in the real world setting to determine whether or not a food has been modified.
To do this we will have to amplify a certain strand of DNA by using Polymerase Chain Reaction. The PCR requires 4 things for it to work. DNA Polymerase must be present to perform the replication of the Target DNA. Next, you must have a Primer to seek out the certain sequence of DNA that is to be replicated. Third, there has to be a large supply of the four Nucleotide bases and fourth you must have the target DNA that you want to replicate. Before the PCR is used we have to extract the DNA of the plant that is going to be tested. To do this we use a mortar and pestle to break up the cell wall of the plant. Then, it is placed in a 99 degree Celsius water bath, this will break up the Cell and Nuclear Membrane. Once the Nuclear Membrane is gone the DNA will be free, however; in the cell there will be DNAse
which will destroy the DNA. To prevent this we must add Instagene matrix beads, which disable the DNAse, immediately after removing the sample from the water bath.
