Biotechnology and its Applications

The technique that involves using living organisms or enzymes to make products and processes for human help is biotechnology. One of the most common uses of biotechnology is in the kitchen. The process of making curds, bread, wine, and more is a microbe mediated process.

This is one form of biotechnology. Though there are a few restrictions now, only genetically modified organisms used in such processes are under biotechnology today.

This technique is only possible because of the alternation of the chemistry of DNA and the construction of recombinant DNA. This process of alternation and construction is genetic engineering.

The process is a complex one and involves a particular formula. There is a restriction on endonucleases and DNA ligase, and there is an appropriate amount of plasmid to isolate. This is to transfer the foreign DNA inside the host organism and for purifying the gene product.

All these things are necessary for function protein needs and make suitable conditions for the process. When there is larger production, bioreactors come into the frame. Let us take a look at them in detail with other applications of biotechnology.

Genetic Engineering

Genetical engineering is a technique of altering the chemistry of DNA and RNA that changes the phenotype of the host organism. The genetic information preserves the asexual reproduction and variation is possible in sexual reproduction.

The hybridization process in animals and plants breeding comes under this. There is the production of undesirable genes as well with the desired genes. When there is a creation of recombinant DNA, cloning and genre are common methods to use.

This is because they facilitate the introduction of a set of desirable genes in the host organism and restrict the undesirable genes. There are three stages of this genetic engineering –

1. Identification of desirable genes in DNA
2. Introduction of DNA in the host
3. Maintenance of introduced DNA and transfer to the progeny

Cloning

After the DNA transfer in the host body, cells don’t multiply themselves in progeny cells. As it adopts the genome of the host, it multiplies and becomes inherited to the host DNA because the alien elements merge with chromosomes which can replicate.

The origin of replication is a special DNA for this inside chromosome. Thus the alien DNA must merge with the chromosome to replicate. This process is cloning as it makes identical copies of DNA.

Recombinant DNA (rDNA)

The laboratory method of bringing together genetic combinations of genetic materials and other sources leads to the formation of Recombinant DNA. This kind of combination is not possible in the natural genome.

The recombinant DNA requires the same chemical structure in DNA molecules. The only difference is the nucleotide sequence. In most of these cases, organisms are normal phenotypes.

The physical and behavioral structure remains the same. Molecular Scissors or restriction enzymes are the specific spots for cutting DNA. The restriction enzymes are present in nucleases that are larger class.

There are two types of nucleases – exonucleases and endonucleases. Exonucleases at the of DNA removes nucleotides while the endonucleases go for Molecular Scissors.

The DNA cut out is merged with the plasmid DNA that acts as a transfer vector for the cut-out. Mosquitoes use this technique to transmit malaria to humans. The plasmid can also act as a vector to transfer alien DNA in hosts.

The Enzyme DNA ligase allows attachment of antibiotic resistance to plasmid vectors. This leads to circular DNA replication in vitro and creates recombinant DNA.

Applications of Recombinant DNA Technology

• It helps in biotechnology, medicine, and research.
• It helps to identify, gene sequencing, and determining their function.
• This helps in the production of blood clotting factor VIII and the hepatitis B vaccine.
• It acts as human insulin and human growth hormone.
• It also helps in creating Insect-resistant crops.

Cloning Vectors

The DNA molecule that carries foreign DNA to the host is a vector. It can replicate itself and merge with the host cell. They are of four types – Plasmid, Bacteriophage, Phagemids, and Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a pathogen that delivers tumor cells and normal cells to the plants. Retroviruses in some animals can transform normal cells into cancerous cells.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens now act as cloning vectors to deliver genes of interest in plants. Similarly, retroviruses now deliver desirable genes into animal cells. When a suitable vector gets gene or DNA, it enters the bacterial, plant, or animal host.

Plasmids and bacteriophages can replicate inside bacterial cells and are not in chromosomal DNA control.

Competent Host

The cell membrane does not allow DNA to pass until it becomes competent. Recombinant DNA is kept on ice and then on the temp of 420C for heat and then again on the ice. This allows bacteria to adopt recombinant DNA and make it enter the host body.

There are other methods as well like microinjection directly in the nucleus. Biolistics is a common method for plants where DNA coats the cells going to enter the host body. Disarmed pathogen vectors infect the cell to transfer recombinant DNA into the host.

Biotechnology And Its Applications

Biotechnology is prominent in industrial biopharmaceutical production and biologicals. It is present in fields like therapy, diagnosis, modified genetic crops, processed food, and more.

Cloning

The process of cloning leads to duplication of exact cells, living parts of an organism. Ian Wilmut was the scientist behind the successful cloning of animals. This experiment took place on a sheep born in 1996 and became the first mammal to go under cloning.

They took a cell from the mammary gland of Finn Dorsett sheep and an egg from Scottish blackface ewe.

They took out the nucleus from the egg and the nucleus from the mammary gland was put in the egg. The development of this egg led to the birth of Dolly. Though eggs belonged to Scottish blackface ewe, Dolly looked like Finn Dorsett sheep.

Because of nucleus removal from the egg, Dolly did not inherit any of the Scottish blackface ewe traits. Dolly was a normal clone but after this many animals died following the same process

Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture

There are three methods of increasing food production –

1. Agro-Chemical based Agriculture
2. Organic Agriculture
3. Genetically Engineered Crop-based Agriculture

The organisms who have altered genes by manipulation are Genetically Modified Organisms. The plants by this are very useful. They are tolerant of antibiotic stresses, rely less on chemical pesticides, these less post-harvest losses, and increase mineral usage efficiency with more nutritional values.

The GM method also facilitates the supply of alternative resources to commercial industries like – starches, fuels, and pharmaceuticals.

Bacillinum is a bacteria that creates a toxin that can kill insects in tobacco, beetles, flies, and mosquitoes. This toxin exists in an inactive form in bacillus but once one enters a host body, it becomes active due to the presence of alkaline ph.

The gene of this toxin goes under cloning to help plants in providing resistance to plants from insects. This eliminates the use of insecticides and pesticides in plants. Some common plants using this are rice, soya, potato, and more.

Biotechnological Applications in Medicine

This method enables the mass production of effective therapeutic drugs in the healthcare sector. They also don’t possess unwanted immunological responses as they are made from non-human sources.

Currently, 30 recombinant therapeutics are active in human use in the world while 12 are present in India.

Genetically Engineered Insulin

The diabetes patients take insulin dose on a regular basis. Slaughtered pigs and cattle’ pancreas were the sources of insulin for diabetes before. But some patients felt allergic and repelled this insulin. There are two polypeptide chains of insulin.

Disulphide links the Chain A and Chain B of insulin. Insulin synthesization to prohormone is necessary for mammal intake.

The prohormone contains C peptide, which gets removed in mature insulin. The challenge is to produce insulin in mature form after using rDNA techniques.

Eli Lilly in 1983 made these two chains and put them in plasmid E. coli. The production of each chain was different but merging them gave the formula of insulin.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is an attempt to correct gene defects in diagnosed individuals. It involves a series of methods to do so. This method includes the insertion of genes in the human body cells and tissue to treat a particular disease.

In this, the inserted gene takes over the non-functional normal gene to perform all the functions. A four-year-old girl in 1990 received the first clinical gene therapy. She had adenosine deaminase which is a crucial enzyme for the immune system to function.

Some children with this disease can opt for bone marrow transplantation as well. Another method is enzyme replacement therapy where the functional ADA replaces the normal genes. But it is not 100% effective.

The problem is lymphocytes of blood grow outside the body and it goes back inside with functional ADA. These cells are not immortal and need a period infusion of these lymphocytes. If this cell enters the body at the embryonic stage, it becomes a permanent cure.

Molecular Diagnosis

Early diagnosis and pathophysiology are important for effective treatment. The conventional methods of diagnosis are not relevant to early detection. Techniques like Recombinant DNA technology, ELISA, and PCR are few relevant techniques for early diagnosis.

The possibility to identify a pathogen in the body is only when it transmits disease symptoms.

But the concentration of it is very high at this time. But PCR can identify low concentrations of bacteria and viruses by amplification of their nucleic acid. It is a common technique to identify HIV Aids and cancer patients.

It can also help to identify other genetic disorders. ELISA follows the principle of antigen-antibody interaction. They identify antigens in the body to see pathogen infection.

Transgenic Animals

Transgenic animals have manipulated DNA and foreign genes. There are rats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows, and other transgenic animals. But 95% of them are only mice.

Normal physiology and development
The designing of transgenic animals is usually to study the regulation of genes and changes in normal body functioning. This can involve studies like insulin-like growth factor.

There is alternation in the host body after introducing a gene. The biological effects are what people study or we can say the biological role of the factor.

Study of disease
Some people design them to understand how these genes make a contribution to disease development. This is to derive and investigate a new treatment for human disease.

There are transgenic models for diseases like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.

Biological products
Human disease needs biological medicines that are expensive to produce. Here creating transgenic animals is more efficient for biological products by introducing DNA required for the human protein.

Phenylketonuria and cystic fibrosis are trying this method to discover treatment. The first transgenic cow in 1997 produced milk with human proteins. The milk had human alpha-lactalbumin which is more nutritional than natural cow milk.

Vaccine safety
They also act as a medium to test vaccines before humans use them. Here we are mainly talking about transgenic mice. The polio vaccines used them as well. If the vaccine is successful on them, monkeys replace them for the next test stage.

Chemical safety testing
This requires transgenic animals to test the toxicity of drugs. This is the safety testing on them as they have more sensitive genes than non-transgenic animals. Their exposure to toxins is studied and gives results in less time.

Biotechnology – Ethical Issues

There is a need for an ethical check on biotechnology as humans have unlimited needs and want. This is also because biology is a vast field and the results are always unpredictable.

Thus Indian Governments have set up a Genetic Engineering Approval Committee to monitor this field in public services. There are patent issues as well regarding this that has led to growing public anger.

This is because companies get patents of existing genetic materials, plants, and other biological resources that people are already using. Rice is one of the staple crops of India. There are more than 2.00.000 varieties of rice.

Basmati alone has 27 verified varieties and is present in Indian ancient texts and poetry. But the government gave its patent to an American Company in 1997. This led to the export of Basmati Rice to the US and other countries.

Their claim was that this is a new variety of basmati when Indian farmers already were producing it.

There are other cases like this too, Turmeric neem is one of them. The population can file an application against this but during a certain time frame after the patent issue. Lays India a few months back filed a case against some farmers in Gujarat for growing their chips potatoes.

When MNCs use local bioresources without proper country’s authorization and compensatory payment is the case of Biopiracy. This is a common cause in developing countries as they are richer in resources but low in economic growth.

Commercialization often exploits natural and traditional knowledge leading to injustice and benefit-sharing between countries. Some nations are working on laws related to this issue to avoid such exploitation. Indian Patent Bill is one such law that deals with this problem and provides solutions for it.

Conclusion

This article is a biology article for competitive exams like UPSC, RRB, SSC, and more. This article covers Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering, and its process and applications. We will talk about its different uses and methods of using them.

This has a high chance of appearing in the UPSC Biology and Science exam. It is because it is an intermediate level topic. The chances of it coming in UPSC Mains is higher than Prelims.

But again if you are a science aspirant, then this article will help you build your basic understanding of the subject. All the UPSC aspirants must read this article before appearing for the exams.