Genetically Altered food

Genetically altered foods usually refer to crops which had been changed in some way by genetic engineering. Scientists use special techniques and special instruments to alter the foods DNA. Scientists alter foods for many reasons. Altered foods are advantageous to farmers, consumers, food manufacturers, and rarely nature. The altered food is advantageous because scientists change its traits and make them for example be more resistant to certain insects or certain chemicals. Scientists simply take certain genes that they need to insert into the food from other organisms that have that gene. Once scientists have that gene they insert that gene into the cell of the food. The food then develops into an organism with that certain trait. Genetically altering food started out in the 1980’s-1990’s. In some countries genetically engineered foods were allowed but some countries prohibited them due to safety reason. Recently government has been trying to regulate the production of these foods.

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The United States has the highest production of genetically engineered foods. In 2006 60% of the corn that was grown in the United States was genetically engineered. Also, 90% of the soybeans have also been genetically engineered. Brazil, Canada, Argentina, China, and India are also major producers of genetically altered foods. Since many of our foods are made up of many different ingredients such as corn that means that most of us still consume some of the genetically engineered food maybe without even knowing it. Most of our fruits and vegetables are not genetically altered for now, but in the speed everything is moving this day, soon they might be. Independent scientific organizations have been telling us that genetically engineered foods are perfectly safe to eat and grow. Since science has been wrong before people doubt it. Another reason people doubt it is because genetically engineering food is new and scientists might not know much about it. Some long term effects can also be expected. Since some plants are genetically altered so they can resist herbicides and eventually weeds will become resistant to herbicides. Insects may also become immune to the crops and not die anymore from eating them. In most of the worlds countries certain agencies make sure that the genetically altered foods are safe to eat and to grow. In the United States; The Environmental Protections Agency, Food and Drug Administrations, and Department Of Agriculture are the agencies that are responsible for checking the genetically engineered foods. Sometimes the foods are checked by only one organization but some specific foods have to be checked by all three of the organizations. In some countries like Europe the genetically engineered foods have a label on them identifying them as genetically altered foods. In the United States the labels are not required. The foods that living things eat today have developed their genes through natural selection and selective breeding. The first organisms began to adapt to their environment and their genes mutated and gave them different characteristics. The organisms that had the better characteristics survived. This process is called natural selection. The first genetically altered tomato was sold in the United States in 1994. Currently scientists are trying to make crops that stay ripe much longer and be more nutritionally healthy to humans. Scientists are also trying to make crops use up less water when growing. They are also trying to prevent allergic reactions from crops such as peanuts, oranges, and other crops. One major thing that would have a lot of controversy is modifying the genes of certain animals to make them grow faster and healthier but these ideas are being studied but they are still not being sold or produced.

DNA and our genes are very powerful materials. All the information our body will need to survive is in our genes and without genes there probably wouldn’t be a world full of biodiversity. Technology has also been advancing so fast that scientists are able to change genes that are amazingly small. There are also many dangers in modifying the DNA of our food because we never know what the long term effect would be and what effect it can have on us or our environment.

Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia is a disorder that is inherited from the parents. The cells that are produced by this disorder are called sickle cells because they are c-shaped and look like half moons. One of the reasons this disease is so dangerous because the cells stick to each other which causes many other problems. Defective genes are responsible for sickle cell anemia. Genes tell our entire cell how to perform to achieve the desired result. The red blood cells contain a gene that instructs the cell on how to make hemoglobin to carry oxygen. In people who have sickle cell anemia the gene that instructs the cell on how to make hemoglobin sends the wrong message and the cell makes the wrong hemoglobin that makes the cell c-shaped instead of being like a doughnut.

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The genes for this disease are passed on from parents to child. The child has to have the gene for sickle cell anemia from both parents; if the child doesn’t then he will only be a carrier of sick cell anemia and will not have sickle cell anemia. There are huge numbers of problems that sickle cell anemia can cause in a human being. Sickle cells die much earlier than normal cells. Sickle cells survive for about 14 days while normal cells live for approximately 120 days. This causes an enormous decrease in the amount of red blood cells in the body which leads to anemia. Sickle cells are also dangerous because they stick to each other and when they enter a blood vessel they get stuck there and after many sickle cells do that then the blood vessel get blocked and no blood goes through it.

Africans, Middle Eastern, and Indians are the people who are most likely to experience sickle cell anemia. Each year 250,000 children are born with sickle cell anemia worldwide. 72,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia and 2 million Americans are carriers. It is most common among African Americans because they have African ancestry. Hispanic Americans are also greatly affected but they are not affected as much as African Americans.

Most of the people with sickle cell anemia have symptoms from the age of 1-3 but some can live with sickle cell anemia until they are adults and begin developing these symptoms. People with sickle cell anemia may develop anemia which is a disease in which there is a small amount of red blood cells and not enough cells to deliver oxygen to the body. Pain crises are another symptom. Pain can be felt in any part of the body at any time. It can happen once a year or once a week. The earliest symptom is pain in the feet and hands. Since sickle cell anemia doesn’t allow the correct amount of oxygen being delivered to a certain organ the organs might die off. The spleen is an organ that is effected many times and it may become enlarged or sometimes die. This will cause your immune system to weaken and you would be in much more danger of developing some king of infection. Delayed growth is another symptom of sickle cell anemia. Stroke which is caused by the blockage of blood vessels is another life threatening symptom of sickle cell anemia. Acute Chest Syndrome is caused when the blood vessels coming to the lungs are blocked and it can cause permanent damage to your lungs. It causes fever, cough, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

Sickle cell anemia is mainly diagnosed when the doctor diagnosis you with anemia. When a doctor diagnosis you with anemia he might try to find the reasons and discover sickle cell anemia. The doctor uses Gel Electrophoresis to find out if you have sickle cells in your blood. There is no cure for sickle cell anemia currently. It is very advantageous if a person finds out about sickle cell anemia earlier because the treatment will be more sufficient. The doctor might prescribe pain relievers for the pain the person is experiencing. Blood transfusions are also used but only in extreme life or death situations. Drugs are also used especially antibiotics for kids. The bone marrow can also be transfused and it will begin releasing normal looking cells but it is very risky and might have no success.

Sickle Cell Anemia is a very dangerous disorder. It just shows how much we are dependent on our genes so our bodies work properly. Since everything in our bodies is controlled by genes, which means that if we had no genes we wouldn’t even be here by now. I also feel very sorry for the people with sickle cell anemia because they couldn’t do anything to prevent sickle cell anemia in their bodies and that they are always in danger of dying and are always in pain emotionally and physically.

Stem Cells

Stem cells are cells that are still nonspecialist or undifferentiated. They are able to self replicate for very long times. They can also specialize into specific cells when they are in a certain environment. The ability to specialize into any kind of cell is the reason why stem cells are so important in science and in our lives. Stem cells can be classified into embryonic stem cells, embryonic germ cells, and adult stem cells. The embryonic stem cells are the cells that are found when the sperm and egg fertilize and the blastocyst forms. Embryonic germ cells are the cells that can be collected in the gonads of the fetus which is later in development. The Adult stem cells can be found in adults but they are not as flexible as embryonic stem cells and they only began differentiating when the certain tissue they are in needs it. Embryonic stem cells and embryonic germ cells are both considered pluripotent which means that they are able to differentiate and become specialized.

Stem cells are useful because they can be used to replace cells that totally destroy organs or tissues in certain diseases like cancer. These cells can be transplanted into humans with certain disorders. Researchers have had ideas of using adult stem cells, by isolating them and letting them reproduce they would increase in numbers and then used to transplant into humans. The problem was that adult stem cells are very rare. They can be found in the bone marrow, brain, eyes, muscles, skin, liver, and pancreas. Most of the time even if the stem cells were found they did not survive outside of the body for a long time.

In 1998 scientists found out that they can use embryonic stem cells which can be easily found within embryos and are much more likely to differentiate into certain types of cells under certain conditions. Research on stem cells is a very modern thing and began only in 1990 that is the reason why not much is yet known about it. In the year 2001 the U.S. halted the supply of money to support stem cell research and still the only allowed stem cell research is research of adult stem cells. There are some stem cells that are already used and they are called hematopoietic stem cells which give rise to blood cells and can give rise to red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Embryonic stem cells can be used in gene therapy in which defective genes can be replaced with healthy genes like in sickle cell anemia for example. When embryonic stem cells are transplanted into a new organism they will adapt to that organism and become part of it and then replicate and return the healthy function of the certain tissue.

There are tons of diseases that treated with the use of stem cells. Heart disease, spinal injuries, immunity disorders which might be caused by cancer from the chemotherapy can all be treated with stem cells. There is a long time to wait until these stem cells can be used because there are ethical issues on the embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have to be taken from a developing embryo and to do that the embryo has to be killed. Another reason is that the use of stem cells doesn’t respect human life. One amazing discovery was made in 2008 by two research teams. They proved that it is possible to make stem cells from regular adult cells. They few insert certain genes into those cells causing them to reprogram and return to their embryonic stage with no job to do. These methods are allowed because they do not kill or destroy any human or any part of a human. In 2008 another team changed the specialization of mouse cells without making them stem cells which will be looked in to, to see if it can be used on humans.

Stem cells can be life savers for many of the people with life threatening diseases or they might mitigate life for people with diseases which make life difficult. I agree that embryonic stem cells cannot be studied if they kill organisms because that is messing with nature and unethical. I also think that there might be many risks with stem cells because not much is known about them and before they can be used they should be studied and tested for many years to make it much safer for people who use them.

XYY Males

A male has 46 chromosomes in all of his cells except the sex cells. The cells also have the gender chromosomes which are X and Y. In XYY males there was a non-disjunction during anaphase of the parent’s sex cell, this caused one of the sperm cells to have an X and a Y and after fertilization the offspring contains XYY chromosomes. A new born doesn’t show any signs of having the XYY syndrome, he born with normal length and weight and he is perfectly healthy. The males that are born with the XYY syndrome are most of the time more active than their siblings, they are also very childish and have a delayed emotional maturity. A negative effect is that males with XYY syndrome have problems learning in school because of the delayed emotional maturity. It is also suggested that males with the XYY syndrome go to a school where the teachers have a very good contact with the parents of the males so the teachers can notify the parents about certain things and parents can notify the teachers of certain things. Most of XYY males develop fine during their childhood years and XYY syndrome is not a very serious syndrome most of the time.

(Y Chromosome)

Alice Theilgaard conducted a study on 12 Danish males with the XYY syndrome. She found that their intelligence was normal compared to normal males. Although she got those results, there was another study that went against her results. Sixty XYY males were also studied and the results came out to be that for every 105 XYY males only 10 XYY males were with average intelligence. Males with the XYY syndrome are just as prone to diseases as males without the XYY syndrome. Males with XYY syndrome grow rapidly in their childhood. When they become adults and reach their final height they turn out to be 7 cm above average male height. Their weight is not in proportion to their height. XYY males have a normal body build and are average in physical activities. Males go through puberty at the average age and if they don’t then that has nothing to do with XYY syndrome. The males develop functioning sex organs and also develop secondary sex characteristics. The males are not impotent and can have children. XYY males have many immature sperm cells but their fertility rate is normal. Males with the XYY syndrome normally do not have male babies with an extra Y chromosome. Once again Alice Theilgaard conducted a study and found that XYY males marry at the same age the average normal male marries. Their number of children is also normal and their children are healthy just like children from a normal male.

Since XYY males reach sexual maturity at the same age as normal males they have the adequate amount of testosterone and do not need more testosterone. Alice Theilgaard conducted another study on how XYY males move on in life and get a job. She found that XYY males work as stable as normal males. Other studies showed that most XYY males do not work in academic jobs. Males with XYY syndrome do not count as patients because XYY syndrome is not a disease. These males also don’t have a greater chance of mental disease if they are treated correctly by their parents, in a good environment, and with tons of help if they need it. Males who weren’t raised as such have a little bit more possibility of being mentally ill but they can seek help from a psychiatrist. For now there aren’t any cures for XYY syndrome but it is not life-threatening. If the XYY males are raised properly there is a little chance they would grow up to be below average or mentally ill.

I think that the parents of these males cannot give up and keep on providing sufficient help to these males because this disorder is not very serious and is not life-threatening and most of the time it does not ruin a person’s life. The XYY males that do come out to be successful should be really proud of themselves because even with a disorder they managed to become more sophisticated than some normal males without the XYY syndrome.