ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Transgene

Transgene is like a special recipe that scientists create by putting some specific genes from one living creature into another living creature. Imagine you have a cookie recipe that you love, but you want to make it better by adding some new ingredients. Similarly, scientists want to improve the traits of plants or animals by adding new genes to their DNA.

For example, if you want to make a tomato plant that can resist diseases, you might take a gene from a different plant that is known to be resistant to diseases and put it into the DNA of the tomato plant. This new gene will help the tomato plant fight off diseases just like the other plant.

Once the new gene is added, it becomes a part of the organism's DNA and is passed onto future generations. This means that the tomato plant will be resistant to diseases for a long time, as long as the gene is not removed.

Overall, transgene is the recipe of changing the genes of one living creature by adding new genes from another living creature to make it better at something.