Hypothetically, transmittance of pathogenic attributes of pathogenic microbes to non-pathogenic microbes is the most dangerous form of genetic engineering in BW. With current knowledge of genetics, micro and molecular biology lies a vast amount of information of several genes and proteins that makes some pathogens so dangerous. That knowledge could potentially be used to mimic those genes into various species of bacteria and viruses that are currently non-pathogenic or have relatively low virulence to create a new repertoire of pathogens. Despite the scare, there are some difficulties that lie in transferring pathogenic attributes of one species or strain to another. Adding a certain pathogenic factor from a pathogenic microbe may not actually …show more content…
The HGP progressed and disclosed protein coding regions, non-coding regions in genetic material, conserved transcription mechanisms, epigenomic mapping, and much more (Lander, 2001). In the context of medical disease, the HGP identified principles of genetic mapping, and disease pathways to better understand the genetics of disease. Prior to the findings of the HGP, there were less than 100 genes linked to disease and years later, more than 2,000 genes linked to disease were identified (Lander, 2011). This knowledge has been the basis of many medical breakthroughs but has also provided the means to develop pathogenic genes that would exploit human genetic faults that make humans more susceptible to disease. More than 500 virus, 200 natural plasmids, and 30 bacteria genomes have been sequenced and provide the genetic layout of how to manipulate their genome to make them more pathogenic (Lander, 2001). Different from transferring pathogenic genes from one species to another, synthetic genes could be made to produce proteins that have pathogenic properties that currently do not exist making treatment and prevention grim. After influenza vaccines are developed and distributed, someone could potentially modify the predicted viral strain and make it more pathogenic or genetically different which would render vaccinations useless and cause a …show more content…
Non-pathogenic and pathogenic have a set of distinct hosts that they are cable of infecting (Longdon et al., 2015). Seldom in nature, when infected viral host species comes into contact with another species, the virus can evolve and become capable of infected a new range of species. The adaption to new hosts depends on certain sets of mutations to take place that can provide the virus with capabilities to replicate and survive in the new host (Longdon et al., 2014). There are already some diseases present today that exhibit host reservoir switching like the influenza A H1N1 virus which causes swine flu in humans. The H1N1 virus usually does not infect humans but in 2009 there was a global pandemic were the virus made a “host jump” and began infecting humans. The H1N1 virus today remains in the populations all over the world as a flu virus (Crosier et al., 2015). With the genome of several viruses sequenced, it may be possible to analyze the genome of known pathogenic viruses and identify the mutations that changed cellular receptors to bind to human cells, immune evasion methods that allow them to survive, and or other methods necessary for replication in new hosts. In 2011, a scientist in the Netherlands created a mutated pathogenic influenza A H5NI virus strain. This virus is the causative agent of avian flu which is highly pathogenic amongst birds. Avian flu is not very pathogenic to humans as about 40%-50%