The image below shows a poppy plant.

The poppy plant produces a powerful painkiller.

Scientists have genetically modified yeast cells to produce painkillers that are normally harvested from poppies.

Discuss the benefits and risks of producing painkillers from genetically modified yeast cells instead of extracting them from poppies.

The genetically modified yeast are transgenic organisms.

What is a transgenic organism?

Give two other examples of the use of transgenic organisms.

Give the role of two enzymes in the production of GM organisms.

Penicillin is a substance used to treat bacterial infections.

There has been a global shortage of penicillin in recent years.

Penicillin kills bacteria by destroying the bacterial cell wall.

What is the name given to a substance that stops bacterial growth?

Some bacteria cause disease but many can be used in different industries.

Explain why bacteria are useful in the biotechnology industry.

Scientists have genetically engineered bacteria to produce large amounts of penicillin.

Describe how scientists would produce a genetically modified bacterium that produces penicillin.

Scientists have been studying the possibility of reducing the populations of pests by using genetic engineering.

They want to insert a gene into male rodents that destroys any sperm containing an X chromosome.

Explain how this method could rapidly reduce the rodent population.

Explain what is meant by the term 'genetically modified'.

Give another example of a current or potential use of a transgenic animal.

Insecticides are substances that kill insects.

Some crops have been modified with a bacterial gene and can produce proteins that act as insecticides.

What method is used to insert the gene from the bacteria into the banana plant?

Scientists are developing a new banana plant that is insect resistant.

The police of two different countries have been called to guard the new plants.

• In a high-income country, protesters want to destroy the plants.
• In a developing country, people have tried to steal the plants to grow themselves.

Suggest why:

• the protesters in the high-income country want to destroy the crops
• why the response in the developing country is so different

Plants can be modified by:

• inserting extra copies of a plant’s gene into another plant
• inserting a bacterial gene into a plant

People are more likely to support genetic modification using extra copies of the plant gene.

Suggest why.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of growing insect-resistant banana plants that produce a toxin that kills insects.

Genetically modified (GM) crops have been created to try and feed an increasing human population.

Describe how GM crops are produced and give one advantage and one disadvantage of growing GM crops.