1. Abstract: In recent years, advances in genetic engineering and techniques of molecular biology have enabled the creation and commercial release of “Genetically Modified (GM) Crops and organisms” that have been used in USA and many developing countries to address the issue of hunger, food insecurity as well as commercial agricultural crops on a global scale. Latest techniques utilize procedures that apply genetic engineering to organisms by using recombinant DNA or rDNA. This application of genetic engineering makes use of an approach that is associated with alterations in the sequence, order, and regulatory function of relevant genes of a species and makes use of enzymes. The rDNA procedure is more used as in this technique the level of genetic information altered is little or very specific with the involvement of just a few or even a single gene. The use of the rDNA approach makes it possible to control the exact timing of production and location of gene products. This has helped in producing new agriculturally important crops in which certain desirable traits or characteristics have been created through the use of several molecular biology and genetic engineering techniques and principles. Therefore, if an alteration is desired in the features of a crop’s seed, a specific gene can be connected to regulatory signaling pathways which then allow the desired expression only within the seed of even inside a particular section of a seed (1 & 2). Background:  The term GMO or GM crops includes all genetically modified organisms or organisms that have been genetically engineered through use of rDNA and are called transgenic crops also (see Figure 1 below). Figure 1: Schematic diagram for creation of a genetically modified crop (3)  This includes foods made by applying genetic engineering otherwise called GMO food or GM crops.  Genetically modified crops were introduced in 1990 to basically increase yields and economic benefits.  The two most important traits developed in GM crops are herbicide tolerance (HT crops) & resistance to pests (Bt crops).  The four main HT GM crops being cultivated most widely are corn (maize), soybean, cotton & canola.  Bt corn was first introduced in USA (see Figure 2 below). Figure 2: Genetic engineering of Bt corn resistant to corn borer infection (4) Relevance: Genetic engineering of GMOs has a wide range of potential applications:  Genetic enhancement of crop varieties & animals used in food production for higher yields to address world hunger issues.  Useful for purposes of genetic characterization & conserving genetic sources  Development of vaccines (2).  Diagnosis of diseases in both crop plants & animals (6 & 7).  Enhance of commercially produced feeds and crops used in biofuel production (5).  Applications of molecular DNA markers or genetic modification in fields like tissue culture of crop plants & forest plant species, embryo transfer done in farm animals, triploidization used in fisheries (5 & 6). Current Work:  Several transgenic crops are already being produced (see Figure 3 below) using the traits of herbicide tolerance as well as resistance to pests that destroy crops. Figure 3: Currently cultivated GM crops on a global scale (5)  Use of rDNA techniques allows genes from one species to be in a plant & with suitable regulatory signaling pathways as well as codon use, the gene can be expressed effectively in the crop plant cells.  Introduction of a gene from a heterologous source involves identification, from donor species, cloning using bacteria and techniques like PCR to amplify DNA, create plant transformation vectors &do transformation (see Figure 4 & 5 below).  Sources of genes for engineering plant seeds include another plant species, wild species & microorganisms. Figure 4: Diagram showing 2 T-DNA on single/ two separate vectors in Agrobacterium. LB and RB: T-DNA left and right borders, respectively. Following transformation, the cotransformed T-DNA integrates, together with flanks of both LB & RB sequence into the plant genome at separate loci (7) Figure 5: Diagram showing steps in the gateway cloning technology for cloning a PCR-product that has the gene of interest into plant transformation vector (7) Applications of genetics: Genetically modified crops or GMO food Summary:  Genetic engineering and molecular biology techniques like gene transfer, PCR helped in creation of GM crops and foods.  The two most widely used traits created in GM crops are herbicide resistance & resistance to pests which help in enhancing yields and increase profits.  Genetic engineering of GMOs has a very wide range of potential for use in different sectors of food production, disease diagnosis and improvement of stock crops/animals in the agricultural, farm & fisheries sector.  GM crops and GMO food can provide a good option to reduce the food insecurity and global hunger as well as malnutrition issues.  PCR techniques play a vital part in creation of transgenic seeds used for GM crop cultivation. Literature Cited: 1) Lemaux, P. G. (2008). Genetically engineered plants and foods: a scientist's analysis of the issues (Part I). Annual review of plant biology, 59, 771-812. 10.1146/annurev.arplant.58.032806.103840 2) Lemaux, P. G. (2009). Genetically engineered plants and foods: A scientist's analysis of the issues (Part II). Annual review of plant biology, 60, 511-559. 3) Chaudry, A. (2013). Genetically modified foods. The Science Creative Quarterly, 8. 4) Hall, H. (2013). Bt Corn: Is It Worth the Risk?. The Science Creative Quarterly, 8. 5) Genetically Modified Crops. FAO Statistical Yearbook 2012 World Food and Agriculture. FAO, Statistics Division. Retrieved on March 15 th, 2013 from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2490e/i2490e04d.pdf http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2490e/i2490e04d.pdf 6) Kaphengst, T et al. (2010). Assessment of the economic performance of GM crops worldwide. Report to the European Commission, March 2011, a part of the Assessment of the economic performance of GM crops worldwide (ENV.B.3/ETU/2009/0010).March 2011. 7) Barampuram, S., & Zhang, Z. J. (2011). Recent advances in plant transformation. In Plant Chromosome Engineering (pp. 1-35). In James A. Birchler (ed.), Plant Chromosome Engineering: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 701. DOI 10.1007/978-1-61737-957-4_1 USA: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Humana Press. Future Directions:  Traits like improvement of nutrition and introduction of important micro-nutrients through staple foods like rice (golden rice being used in trials on small scale farms in countries, made with transfer of 3 genes introduced together for high beta-carotene content see Figure 6 below) (1) to be introduced in the future but with proper testing for potential risks of health.  The need to develop appropriate future regeneration protocols which can effectively incorporate exogenous genes for creation of stable transgenic plants so as to eliminate the use of gene silencing protocols (7). Figure 6: GM crop of yellow colored golden rice with high beta-carotene contents (1)