Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Genetic Engineering

• The chemical structure of genes
• Words to Know
• Gene splicing
• Genetic engineering procedures
• Applications of genetic engineering
• Human gene therapy
• The commercialization of genetic engineering

Genetic engineering is any process by which genetic material (the building blocks of heredity) is changed in such a way as to make possible the production of new substances or new functions. As an example, biologists have now learned how to transplant the gene that produces light in a firefly into tobacco plants. The function of that gene—the production of light—has been added to the normal list of functions of...