I'll really bother everybody and waste a bit of bandwidth and expand on my
first too-short answer to Greg:

> OK, but isn't there a difference between the indirect manipulation the genes
>  by selective breeding (even at the level of the gametes) and directly
>  manipulating them at the sub-cellular level?

Nope.

The differences lie wholly in the procedures, not in the effect. Trying to
move agronomically beneficial traits around by selective breeding is an
extremely tedious, time-consuming process, requiring years to decades. By
contrast, we can now just pick up a "gene" and place it where we believe it
would serve us best.

But just like anyone who's ever programmed a computer, the effect isn't
always what you expect. There's still a high trial-and-error quality to
programming at this level, but that's true of any complex system, especially
one you didn't write.

In the end, however, there is no difference in the net effect, other than in
the ease and speed at which the genetic modification was achieved.

Wirt Atmar