Definition of "genetic engineering" []

• Scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism. It involves the production and use of recombinant DNA and has been employed to create bacteria that synthesize insulin and other human proteins. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Although big changes in repetitive DNA sequences certainly may affect gene expression13 and animal shapes14 just as point mutations in proteins and more “traditional” Darwinian processes may do,15 natural genetic engineering does not explain where the engineering tools came from, or how they can be employed coherently, or how formatting came about, or how it might change coherently, or a host of other pressing questions."
• "Either the food companies have been far ahead of the pharmaceutical and pesticide industries in genetic engineering or else we are witnessing sustained sequential organic mutation on an undreamt-of scale."