Question

the treatment of diabetes was revolutionized when transgenic bacteria were utilized to produce human insulin. what are transgenic organisms? what feature of dna is responsible for a human gene in bacteria effectively producing the insulin protein?

Explanation:

Transgenic organisms are those that have had foreign DNA (from another species) inserted into their genome. The feature of DNA that allows a human gene in bacteria to effectively produce the insulin protein is the universality of the genetic code. This means that the same triplet codons code for the same amino acids across different species. So, when the human insulin - coding gene is inserted into bacteria, the bacterial cell's machinery (ribosomes, tRNA etc.) can read the genetic code of the human gene and synthesize the insulin protein according to the instructions encoded in the DNA.

Answer:

Transgenic organisms have foreign DNA inserted. The universality of the genetic code enables bacteria to produce human insulin from inserted human gene.