<P> Genetic transformation has become very efficient in some model organisms . In 2008 genetically modified seeds were produced in Arabidopsis thaliana by simply dipping the flowers in an Agrobacterium solution . The range of plants that can be transformed has increased as tissue culture techniques have been developed for different species . </P> <P> The first transgenic livestock were produced in 1985, by micro-injecting foreign DNA into rabbit, sheep and pig eggs . The first animal to synthesise transgenic proteins in their milk were mice, engineered to produce human tissue plasminogen activator . This technology was applied to sheep, pigs, cows and other livestock . </P> <P> In 2010 scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they had created the first synthetic bacterial genome . The researchers added the new genome to bacterial cells and selected for cells that contained the new genome . To do this the cells undergoes a process called resolution, where during bacterial cell division one new cell receives the original DNA genome of the bacteria, whilst the other receives the new synthetic genome . When this cell replicates it uses the synthetic genome as its template . The resulting bacterium the researchers developed, named Synthia, was the world's first synthetic life form . </P> <P> In 2014 a bacteria was developed that replicated a plasmid containing an unnatural base pair . This required altering the bacterium so it could import the unnatural nucleotides and then efficiently replicate them . The plasmid retained the unnatural base pairs when it doubled an estimated 99.4% of the time . This is the first organism engineered to use an expanded genetic alphabet . </P>

How does genetic engineering lead to the development of new species