Cellular Genetic Modification Designer Babies research paper

Cellular Genetic Modification (“Designer Babies”) research paper

Solution

Designer babies are the genetically engineered babies, whose gene expression is changed to improve the characters such as improving skills, physical appearance, and suppression of disease causing genes. Thus, the baby will have desired characteristics, while avoiding the inheritance of harmful or unwanted characters. This is going to be generally done prior to the in vitro fertilization or implantation into the surrogate mother (embryo screening) or sometimes done with oocytes and needs in-vitro fertilization. CRISPER/Cas9 is the methodology used as explained below to produce genetic modification finally to produce designer babies. However, there are various ethical and moral issues associated with designer babies due to “triple genome” in a baby for example, genomic editing to place mitochondrial DNA (to avoid mitochondrial and inherited pre-disposing genetic disorders) from another parent apart from native parents. The pre-implantation technology is now currently using in detecting and screening embryo in order to assess whether the resultant embryos from fertilization are normal or abnormal genotypically.

Pros: This technique used to treat genetic related mitochondrial diseases in which energy production issues are there. Pronuclear transfer is used or transfer of genes by maternal spindle transfer

Cons: A variety of bioethical issues is concerned with this therapy because baby is going to possess 3 sources of DNA so that it is highly unethical as gene other gene therapies. Therapy involves germ line modification so that higher chances of developing other side effects and abnormal genetic induced phenotypic features.

Possible reasons for the prevalence of mitochondrial defects in embryos created by nuclear transfer cloning are defects in the bioenergetics of novel mitochondria synthesized in these embryos due to presence of any defective nuclear mutant gene when cloning. This mutant nuclear genome has negative influence on the mitochondrial gene functions and sustained to the newly synthesized mitochondria inside the embryo. These defects in the nuclear gene transfer are associated with the heteroplasmic condition of the egg, or a combination of the two finally results in \"diseases specific for metabolic tissues such as brain, heart & muscle\" in delivering sufficient bioenergitics to the cell requirement.

Though it seems that this technology is helping to improve the gene pool of humans enriched with good characters, it may always not possible to have predicted expressions in the children. If this is the case, the parents definitely will be upset because they spend money for that, discriminations arise.

CRISPER: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repetitive sequences mainly possess nucleic acids (genes) on the double stranded DNA useful for genomic editing.

The short palindromic sequences of prokaryotic DNA are considered as “repetitive short segments of spacer DNA” meticulously exposed to plasmid or bacteriphages. These CIRSPR spacers are useful to identify & cut host genome sequences similar to RNA interference (here siRNA or mIRNA are used). In this process, CRISPR-associated RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9 are going to enabling genome editing. Cas9 nuclease is going to complex with “synthetic RNA” to cut the genome at a specific location finally new genes are added.

Clustered regulatory Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is segments of short prokaryotic base sequences. In the field of biotechnology, CRISPR is used for genome editing of microorganisms and human embryos as well. Editing of embryos by the CRISPR is one of the most interesting topics in biotechnology, which is also being applied to develop “designer babies.”

References:

Gene editing on human embryos would not create ‘designer babies’

David Warmflash | February 2, 2016 | Genetic Literacy Project