Final answer:
A transgenic organism is one that incorporates foreign DNA, typically from another species. This term applies to an organism that has been genetically engineered to pass on desirable traits, such as the mice in the example provided by the student's question.
Step-by-step explanation:
The general term used to describe an organism that incorporates foreign DNA is a transgenic organism. Genetic engineering is the process where recombinant DNA technology is used to alter the genotype of an organism by inserting foreign DNA to achieve desirable traits. When the foreign DNA comes from a different species, the organism that receives it is called transgenic. Consequently, such organisms are capable of passing the new genetic material to their offspring.
For example, by microinjecting DNA into a fertilized mouse egg, Beatrice Mintz and others created a mouse that could transmit the introduced genes to its progeny, making it a transgenic mouse. This kind of technology has been applied in creating bacteria that produce human insulin, herbicide-resistant soybeans, and borer-resistant corn, to name a few. Products like vaccines, antibiotics, and hormones are examples of substances obtained using transgenic organisms, which are often generated by molecular cloning techniques.