Discuss the impact on the genetic diversity of a genetically altered plant and animal.?

Question

if someone knows the answer to that please help, i've been looking everywhere for the answer.

Answer 1

No one really knows the answer to this question and so it requires speculation. Genetic modification (GM) is only applied to plants and animals of commercial value. As such it has the possibility of reducing the number of plants and animals commercially grown if these GM organisms prove to be advantageous economically. This could lead to the loss of the genetic material from the varieties that have been replaced and are no longer being cultivated. A similar effect has been seen with normal farm crops where the increasing uniformity of farmed varieties has lead to the loss of Heirloom varieties and of course the loss of those genes.

GM technology is often introduced to control pests. Genes are introduced to a plant to cause it to make its own pesticide such as BT corn. This can have multiple effects on insect genetics. For instance a threatened species might be driven accidentally to extinction. I would note that there is no evidence that this has ever happened, but if it did that would reduce genetic diversity. It might also encourage the development of pesticide resistant insects, and in fact BT corn has done exactly that and is now quickly loosing its effectiveness at controlling pests. That process might actually increase the genetic diversity in pest insect species, and ironic and unfortunate consequence.