Cloning Genetic engineering, altering the inherited characteristics of an organism in a predetermined way, by introducing into it a piece of the genetic material of another organism. Genetic engineering offers the hope of cures for many inherited diseases, once the problem of low efficiencies of effective transfer of genetic material is overcome. Another development has been the refinement of the technique called cloning, which produces large numbers of genetically identical individuals by transplanting whole cell nuclei. With other techniques scientists can isolate sections of DNA representing single genes, determine their nucleotide sequences, and reproduce them in the laboratory. This offers