Re: What is a transgene?

A transgene is a gene transplanted into an organism. The organism may not have had the gene originally, or may have had a different version of the gene. Scientists make transgenic organisms to test the function of genes, and also to "make" better crops. Is this harmful or dangerous to the organism? That is a controversial topic these days. If an organism, say strawberries, carries a new gene that expresses a new protein, say enhanced resistance to frost, that would be a good thing. Farmers will be able to get a better harvest and be less dependent on the weather. But are the enhanced strawberries still strawberries if the transgene is from the frost-hardy tomato plant?

Complex organisms like strawberries or tomatoes probably express about 5-10,000 genes. Genes make proteins that interact, eg., gene A makes protein A that turns on gene B. The proteins can be in feedback loops and/or other regulatory systems that depend on each other. There is redundancy in an organism so that if one regulatory system fails, others can compensate. It takes a lot of coordinated gene expression to make a whole organism. So, on the one hand, one "new" gene in 10,000 probably won't change the identity or have drastic effects on an organism. On the other hand, if it's a crucial regulatory gene, a lot of changes may occur. Scientists do a lot of testing, and the FDA has regulations for safety that must be met before a new crop is approved.

This type of biotech has really transformed the agriculture industry. Whereas before, breeding new crops is done the old-fashion ways: eg., splicing to make apple/pears, or hand-picking the trait-favorable organisms to breed, now crops with new traits can be generated very specifically in a very short time. Pretty much every single domestic crop you can think of is not "natural," they've all been bred, and are different from their wild cousins. So, as with all new technology, proceed with caution and learn as much as possible from it. After all, you normally can't cross-breed tomatoes and strawberries and even if you could, it would take a LOT of time to breed out the traits that you don't want and keep the ones that you do.