Genetic Engineering for non-scientists - introduction to genetic engineering for patenting genes and biotechnology

What is Genetic Engineering?

Genetic Engineering is the heritable, directed alteration of an organism.

A heritable alteration is a change that can be carried from one generation to the next. Genetic engineering is performed by modifying an organism's own DNA or introducing new DNA to perform desired functions.

Why does genetic engineering involve DNA?
Basic genetics
How does DNA work?
Regulation of gene expression
Lets make a glow-in-the-dark-houseplant
Summary

Biotechnology is a broader term than genetic engineering and includes non-genetic techniques to modify organisms. Genetic engineering is the most powerful and least understood tool for biotechnology, and is the focus of these pages. Many of the same principles used in genetic engineering are involved in biotechnology.

Recommended Reading