Genetic biotechnology is a branch of the study of genes or genetic make-up. Geneticists have the ability to isolate genes and then discover what traits those genes hold. Scientists can then use that information to implant or splice those genes and their traits into other things. For example, a scientist could discover and splice a photosynthetic gene from a plant and put it into an animal, so animals could use the sun to produce food. So far, no such gene is known to exist but that is just an example of the imaginative thinking that comes from biotechnology.
Genetic biotechnology is a hot issue for many different industries.
Biotechnology already plays a major role in agriculture. Before the development of modern gene technology, farmers would breed together plants or animals that had desirable traits in order to create more plants or animals with desirable traits. With the development of genetic biotechnology, scientists can achieve the same benefits as breeding, but in a much shorter period of time. Though many people know about the work that scientists are doing to clone sheep or to make giant tomatoes, most people are not aware that much of the food they eat has been genetically engineered. One crop that many people are not aware is a genetically engineered crop is corn.