Question

The first commercial application of genetic engineering was the use of bacteria to make insulin, a medicine needed by diabetics. Before the use of genetically-engineered bacteria, insulin had to be harvested from the pancreases of slaughtered animals. How has genetic engineering most likely improved the lives of diabetics

Answer 1

Answer:

The question is incomplete, it lacks options. The options are:

A) It has made the demand for insulin decrease.

B) It has made the incidence of diabetes decrease.

C) It has made it easier for diabetics to inject themselves with insulin.

D) It has made insulin cheaper and more readily available.

The answer is D

Explanation:

Genetic engineering is a biotechnological procedure that involves the transfer of genes from one organism to another using biotechnology. In this case, bacteria cells are said to be genetically modified because their genetic content is tampered with and the genes that produces the insulin protein in humans is added into their genome. Hence, they transcribe and translate this gene to produce the protein-insulin.

Diabetic patients cannot produce this insulin in their system. Hence, the insulin produced from this genetically modified bacteria cells can be administered to diabetics via injection. This genetically modified way of producing insulin has proven to be a far better option to the previous practice of slaughtering cattles and pigs to obtain this protein because the GM method allows insulin to be produced in large amounts making it available and cheaper to diabetics.