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Biotechnology Applications in Agriculture & Medicine:
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Biotechnology, a dynamic field at the intersection of biology and technology, revolutionizes diverse industries. Biotechnology applications range from genetically modified crops enhancing agriculture to bioengineered medicines and vaccines advancing healthcare.
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What are the various Biotechnology applications and how does It utilize catalysts and downstream processing?
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- Varied Applications: From Therapeutics to Genetically Modified Crops: The biotechnology applications include therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically modified crops for agriculture, processed food, bioremediation, waste treatment, and energy production.
- Research Areas: Catalysts, Engineering and Processing Optimization: Three critical research areas of biotechnology are:
- Providing the best catalyst in the form of an improved organism, usually a microbe or pure enzyme.
- Creating optimal conditions through engineering for a catalyst to act, and
- Downstream processing technologies to purify the protein/organic compound.
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What are the impacts of Biotechnology applications on Agriculture?
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- Green Revolution: Transforming Agriculture and Food Supply: The Green Revolution succeeded in tripling the food supply but it was not enough to feed the growing human population.
- Harnessing Totipotency through Tissue Culture Technique: When a whole plant could be regenerated from explants, i.e., any part of a plant taken out and grown in a test tube, under sterile conditions in special nutrient media.
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- This capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell/explant is called totipotency.
- Propagation: By Biotechnology applications of these methods, it is possible to achieve the propagation of a large number of plants in a very short duration.
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- This method of producing thousands of plants through tissue culture is called micro-propagation.
- Soma Clones: Each of these plants will be genetically identical to the original plant from which they were grown, i.e., they are some clones.
- Disease Free Plants: Recovery of healthy plants from diseased plants.
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- Even if the plant is infected with a virus, the meristem (apical and axillary) is free of virus.
- Hence, one can remove the meristem and grow it in vitro to obtain virus-free plants.
- Somatic hybridisation in Plant Biotechnology: When single cells from plants and after digesting their cell walls have been able to isolate naked protoplasts (surrounded by plasma membranes).
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- Isolated protoplasts from two different varieties of plants – each having a desirable character – can be fused to get hybrid protoplasts, which can be further grown to form a new plant.
- These hybrids are called somatic hybrids while the process is called somatic hybridisation.
- Example: When a protoplast of tomato is fused with that of potato and forms new hybrid plants combining tomato and potato characteristics.
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Advancements and Advantages of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs):
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- Plants, bacteria, fungi and animals whose genes have been altered by manipulation are called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
- Advantages of GM plants:
- More tolerant to abiotic stresses (cold, drought, salt, heat).
- Reduced reliance on chemical pesticides (pest-resistant crops).
- Help to reduce post-harvest losses.
- Increased efficiency of mineral usage by plants (this prevents early exhaustion of fertility of soil).
- Enhanced nutritional value of food, e.g., golden rice, i.e., Vitamin ‘A’ enriched rice.
- It is also used to create tailor-made plants to supply alternative resources to industries, in the form of starches, fuels and pharmaceuticals.
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Examples of Genetically Modified Organism: Impact of Bt Toxin and Pest-Resistant Plants
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- Bt toxin: It is produced by a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt for short).
- It has been cloned from the bacteria and been expressed in plants to provide resistance to insects without the need for insecticides; in effect creating a bio-pesticide.
- Examples: Bt cotton, Bt corn, rice, tomato, potato soybean etc.
- Bt Cotton: Some strains of Bacillus thuringiensis produce proteins that kill certain insects such as lepidopterans (tobacco budworm, armyworm), coleopterans (beetles) and dipterans (flies, mosquitoes) protecting the crops.
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- Specific Bt toxin genes were isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated into several crop plants such as cotton.
- Pest Resistant Plants: Several nematodes parasitise a wide variety of plants and animals including human beings.
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- Example: A Nematode Meloidegyne incognitia infects the roots of tobacco plants and causes a great reduction in yield.
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How do Biotechnology applications revolutionize Medicine?
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- Safer and More Effective Therapies: Impact of Recombinant DNA Technology: The recombinant DNA technological processes have made an immense impact in the area of healthcare by enabling the mass production of safe and more effective therapeutic drugs which do not induce unwanted immunological responses as is common in the case of similar products isolated from non-human sources.
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Role of Genetic Engineering in Diabetes Management
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- Insulin consists of two short polypeptide chains: chain A and chain B, that are linked together by disulphide bridges.
- In mammals, including humans, insulin is synthesised as a pro-hormone which contains an extra stretch called the C peptide.
- This C peptide is not present in the mature insulin and is removed during maturation into insulin.
- In 1983, Eli Lilly prepared two DNA sequences (using the rDNA technique) corresponding to A and B, chains of human insulin and introduced them in plasmids of E. coli to produce insulin chains.
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Gene Therapy: Correcting the Blueprint of Hereditary Diseases:
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- Meaning: Gene therapy is an attempt to treat a hereditary disease which uses methods that allow correction of a gene defect that persists in a child/embryo.
- Insertion of Genes: Here genes are inserted into a person’s cells and tissues to treat a disease.
- Correction of a genetic defect involves the delivery of a normal gene into the individual or embryo to take over the function of and compensate for the non-functional gene.
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Modern Technologies in Molecular Diagnosis
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- Using conventional methods of diagnosis (serum and urine analysis, etc.) early detection is not possible.
- Modern Technologies: Recombinant DNA technology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme-Linked Immuno-sorbent Assay (ELISA) are some of the techniques that serve the purpose of early diagnosis.
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How do Transgenic Animals impact Medicine and Research through Biotechnology applications?
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- Animals that have had their DNA manipulated to possess and express an extra (foreign) gene are known as transgenic animals.
- Example: Transgenic rats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows and fish. Benefits of such modifications:
- Physiology and development in Transgenic Animals:: Transgenic animals can be specifically designed to allow the study of how genes are regulated, and how they affect the normal functions of the body and its development.
- Example: the study of complex factors involved in growth such as insulin-like growth factors.
- Study of disease: Transgenic animals in Biotechnological Research: Many transgenic animals are designed to increase our understanding of how genes contribute to the development of disease.
- Example: Study of human diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s.
- Production of Therapeutic Biological products: Transgenic animals that produce useful biological products to treat certain human diseases can be created by the introduction of a portion of DNA (or genes).
- Transgenic Mice in Vaccine Safety Testing: Transgenic mice are being developed for use in testing the safety of vaccines before they are used on humans.
- Biotechnology applications in Chemical safety testing: This is known as toxicity/safety testing. The procedure is the same as that used for testing the toxicity of drugs.
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What Ethical standards govern Biotechnological applications and how does the GEAC impact their validity and safety?
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- Some ethical standards are required to evaluate the morality of all human activities that might help or harm living organisms.
- The GEAC Framework: The Indian Government has set up organisations such as GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee).
- GEAC Decision: Validity and Safety Assessments: GEAC makes decisions regarding the validity of GM research and the safety of introducing GM organisms for public services.
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GMO Challenges: Patents, Monopoly, and the Ethical Implications of Biopiracy
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- Monopoly over technology and seeds: The patents extend to functional equivalents, implying that other people selling the modified crops (after manipulation of traditional varieties) and their seeds (Example– Basmati rice) could be restricted by the patent.
- Biopiracy: Ethics and Global Impact of Bioresource Exploitation: it is a term used to refer to the use of bio-resources by multinational companies and other organizations without proper authorisation from the countries and people concerned without compensatory payment.
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