History
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Breeding in the old days
In the wild animals breed to reproduce offspring, so their species won’t become extinct. Livestock agriculture started when mankind started to breed animals to be sure of a supply of food. Nowadays human can produce a lot of animals. By breeding from the animals which have the characteristics that people prefer, they can breed more animals with those characteristics. For example, they can breed the best mother cows with the best father bulls to get cows that produce larger amounts of milk.
By keeping animals on a farm mankind was able to produce food without having to go out to hunt animals. So even thousand years ago farmers had started to breed better animals by selecting the best and breeding from them. It was clear that this control of breeding worked, but not how it worked. During the Second World War there were food shortages, therefore after the war people started to improve breeding, to produce more and better animals, and thus more food.
Nowadays we do know how it works. A human or an animal is made of billions and billions of cells. These cells all originate from just one cell: a fertilised cell.Every cell contains a kind of building plan: DNA. It contains all the information that determines whether a cow is black and white, produces lots of milk or is very good for meat.
Useful DNA
When you breed, or “cross” two different animals from the same breed with each other, you mix their DNA. The new animal gets characteristics or “traits” such as “Give more milk” and another gets the trait “Grow faster.” Which trait a new animal gets from which parent animal is not known beforehand. Often it is only when the new animal becomes an adult that you can see the result. The best animals will then be selected as the next parents. This is the process where man makes animals change over time to show the characteristics that are desired.
We not only know what happens with this type of breeding, we even know how to work directly with DNA. We can use experiments to find the part of the DNA which is responsible for, for example, the amount of milk a cow can produce. So, instead of breeding a cow to produce more milk by selecting the best parents in the old fashioned way which can take 10 years, cows with specific parts of DNA could be selected, to theoretically breed a cow that gives more milk in just one generation by using that specific DNA part!
DNA Establishment
The term genetics is about 100 years old. In 1953 there was a big break-through, with the publication of a model that described the shape of DNA as a so called “double helix”. Most of the research was performed by Rosalind Franklin and after the publication of this model by Watson and Crick, research in heritability increased enormously.
Genes are pieces of DNA which code for proteins. The total DNA of an organism is called a Genome.
Working with the DNA of animals is relatively a new phenomenon. Most scientists who were working at the beginning of these techniques are still working in their laboratories. But, in this short amount of time a lot has happened. Who knows where we will be in 100 years from now. For example, at the moment plants can be cultivated which produce medicines. Maybe in the future we will be able to cultivate meat in the laboratory, so we do not have to slaughter animals anymore!!
Genetic Modification
In 1972 scientists succeeded in putting pieces of DNA into different species. This was called the recombinant DNA (rDNA) technique, or genetic modification. An organism that is made by rDNA technique is called a transgene organism of genetic modification (GMO).
At the moment genetic modification of food- and agricultural plants like maize, cotton and soya takes place, but in the future the genetic modification of animals may become more acceptable to the general public.
In the wild animals breed to reproduce offspring, so their species won’t become extinct. Livestock agriculture started when mankind started to breed animals to be sure of a supply of food. Nowadays human can produce a lot of animals. By breeding from the animals which have the characteristics that people prefer, they can breed more animals with those characteristics. For example, they can breed the best mother cows with the best father bulls to get cows that produce larger amounts of milk.
By keeping animals on a farm mankind was able to produce food without having to go out to hunt animals. So even thousand years ago farmers had started to breed better animals by selecting the best and breeding from them. It was clear that this control of breeding worked, but not how it worked. During the Second World War there were food shortages, therefore after the war people started to improve breeding, to produce more and better animals, and thus more food.
Nowadays we do know how it works. A human or an animal is made of billions and billions of cells. These cells all originate from just one cell: a fertilised cell.Every cell contains a kind of building plan: DNA. It contains all the information that determines whether a cow is black and white, produces lots of milk or is very good for meat.
Useful DNA
When you breed, or “cross” two different animals from the same breed with each other, you mix their DNA. The new animal gets characteristics or “traits” such as “Give more milk” and another gets the trait “Grow faster.” Which trait a new animal gets from which parent animal is not known beforehand. Often it is only when the new animal becomes an adult that you can see the result. The best animals will then be selected as the next parents. This is the process where man makes animals change over time to show the characteristics that are desired.
We not only know what happens with this type of breeding, we even know how to work directly with DNA. We can use experiments to find the part of the DNA which is responsible for, for example, the amount of milk a cow can produce. So, instead of breeding a cow to produce more milk by selecting the best parents in the old fashioned way which can take 10 years, cows with specific parts of DNA could be selected, to theoretically breed a cow that gives more milk in just one generation by using that specific DNA part!
DNA Establishment
The term genetics is about 100 years old. In 1953 there was a big break-through, with the publication of a model that described the shape of DNA as a so called “double helix”. Most of the research was performed by Rosalind Franklin and after the publication of this model by Watson and Crick, research in heritability increased enormously.
Genes are pieces of DNA which code for proteins. The total DNA of an organism is called a Genome.
Working with the DNA of animals is relatively a new phenomenon. Most scientists who were working at the beginning of these techniques are still working in their laboratories. But, in this short amount of time a lot has happened. Who knows where we will be in 100 years from now. For example, at the moment plants can be cultivated which produce medicines. Maybe in the future we will be able to cultivate meat in the laboratory, so we do not have to slaughter animals anymore!!
Genetic Modification
In 1972 scientists succeeded in putting pieces of DNA into different species. This was called the recombinant DNA (rDNA) technique, or genetic modification. An organism that is made by rDNA technique is called a transgene organism of genetic modification (GMO).
At the moment genetic modification of food- and agricultural plants like maize, cotton and soya takes place, but in the future the genetic modification of animals may become more acceptable to the general public.