Genetic Engineering was first realized in agriculture. According to various sources genetic engineering first occurred during the domestication of plants and animals through artificial selection. The dog was the first animal around 12,000 BC substantiated by a fossil recovered at that time. Plant domestication first occurred around 10,000 BC. Wheat was found in pre-Pottery Neolithic in villages in Southeast Asia. Farmers would shape organisms to suit their needs through selective breeding. X-rays were first used to deliberately mutated plants in 1927, from that point more than 2,000 genetically mutated plant varieties have been produced. At this point in the concept of genetic engineering it seems like this was a great advancement in the way we advanced our food resourses. …show more content…
From Gregor Mendel’s discovery of genetic inheritance in 1865 by crossing peas to Frederick Griffith proving the existence of a transforming principle involved in inheritance in 1928 . This principle would later be recognized as DNA. After that the gene code for proteins was introduced and the double helix structure of DNA was identified. These discoveries were just the beginning. There had to be major advancements in the tools that were used. Restriction enzymes and plasmids became very important