GC: n

S: WHO – http://www.who.int/foodsafety/areas_work/food-technology/faq-genetically-modified-food/en/ (last access: 1 September 2015); http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732 (last access: 1 September 2015).

N: 1. Genetically modified organism (GMO), organism whose genome has been engineered in the laboratory in order to favour the expression of desired physiological traits or the production of desired biological products. In conventional livestock production, crop farming, and even pet breeding, it has long been the practice to breed select individuals of a species in order to produce offspring that have desirable traits. In genetic modification, however, recombinant genetic technologies are employed to produce organisms whose genomes have been precisely altered at the molecular level, usually by the inclusion of genes from unrelated species of organisms.
2. An organism that has been modified by the application of recombinant DNA technology.
3. Certain authors, mostly from the United States, make a distinction between GMOs and GEOs. They believe that a GMO is an organism produced through genetic modification including natural processes, whereas a GEO is produced only through genetic engineering.
4. Defined similarly, the term “transgenic organism” is mostly used in reference to animals and never in reference to microorganisms.

S: 1. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/genetically-modified-organism (last access: 1 September 2015). 2, 3 & 4. TERMIUMPLUS.

SYN: GMO, genetically engineered organism.

S: GDT; TERMIUMPLUS.

CR: transgenesis