Centauri Genetics

"Remember, genes are NOT blueprints. This means you can't, for example, insert "the genes for an elephant's trunk" into a giraffe and get a giraffe with a trunk. There -are- no genes for trunks. What you CAN do with genes is chemistry, since DNA codes for chemicals. For instance, we can in theory splice the native plants' talent for nitrogen fixation into a terran plant."

- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "Nonlinear Genetics"

Centauri Genetics is a Explore technology in Alpha Centauri.

Background
The first contacts with Planetary sentience during research on Centauri Meditation (E5) caused widespread excitement among the scientific community. They propose using new Retroviral Engineering (C5) iques to unravel Centauri Genetics—the structural blueprint of native organisms.