We'll start with some of the history of genetic engineering:
Modern genetic engineering began in the early 1970’s when Herber Boyer’s lab at the University of California San Francisco and Stanley Cohen’s Stanford lab made two great leaps of science. Boyer’s team had isolated an enzyme that cut DNA at specific predetermined locations, and Cohen worked out methods for introducing small pieces of DNA, called plasmids, into bacteria. These plasmids would copy the genetic material whenever a gene divided. The two teams knew they had found something special, and so when they met in a convention in Hawaii, they decided to team up. Using both discoveries, they worked to make a method of splicing a gene into another cell. Stanford quickly put a patent on the method, which was at the time a rare occurrence, but a smart one as it was one of the building blocks of modern genetic engineering. Then, in June of 2000 the world learned that 2 different companies had completed a draft of the human genome. Luckily, one company, the Human Genome Project, was publicly owned and paid for, so the information was not patented and controlled by just one private company. Although the competing company did make about $1 billion from their work.
The first step in genetic engineering would be to have a trait and an organism you want to adopt that trait. You would have to locate the gene that codes for the protein that would create that trait. The most commonly engineered traits are those for resistance to herbicides and growth hormones. Once the gene has been isolated, it must be multiplied - usually through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Once you have a good source of the gene, you must put it in a plasmid (a circular strand of DNA that can be absorbed by a bacteria). For the gene to be expressed, it is necessary to fulfill the requirements that will lead to it being triggered on the plasmid. (Such as the plasmid pARA-R, which needs the sugar arabinose to start producing red fluorescent protein). Now you must insert your plasmid into bacteria. Bacteria naturally absorb plasmids, as it can help them survive. However only about 1% of bacteria will absorb the plasmid. This number can be increased by 'shocking' the bacteria by changing temperatures rapidly or by actually giving them an electrical shock. This makes their membranes more permeable to DNA and thus more likely to be absorbed. If you are engineering an animal, you must insert the DNA directly into the nucleus. This has to be done while it is still an embryonic stem cell, because if you don't, only that cell will have the gene. This way, it is duplicated so that every cell is given the code for the selected trait.
Congratulations! You have now genetically engineered an organism.
