Biotechnology

Biotechnology deals with the industrial-scale production of biopharmaceuticals and biologicals using genetically modified microbes, fungi, plants, and animals.

Applications include therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically modified crops, processed food, bioremediation, waste treatment, and energy production.

Three critical research areas are: providing improved catalysts (organisms/enzymes), creating optimal conditions for catalysts, and developing downstream processing technologies for purification.

Three options are agro-chemical based agriculture, organic agriculture, and genetically engineered crop-based agriculture.

While the Green Revolution tripled food supply, it wasn't enough for the growing population. Increased yields relied on improved varieties, management, and agrochemicals, which are expensive for developing world farmers.

Tissue culture, developed in the 1950s, allows whole plants to be regenerated from explants (plant parts) grown in sterile nutrient media.

Totipotency is the capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell or explant.

The nutrient medium must provide a carbon source (like sucrose), inorganic salts, vitamins, amino acids, and growth regulators (auxins, cytokinins).

Micro-propagation is the method of producing thousands of plants through tissue culture in a short duration.

Somaclones are plants produced through tissue culture that are genetically identical to the original parent plant.

Meristem (apical and axillary) tissue is often virus-free, allowing for the recovery of healthy plants from diseased ones through in vitro culture.

Somatic hybridization involves fusing isolated protoplasts (plant cells without cell walls) from different varieties to create new hybrid plants with combined characteristics.

GMOs are organisms whose genes have been altered by manipulation. GM plants offer benefits like tolerance to abiotic stresses, reduced pesticide reliance, and enhanced nutritional value.

Bt toxin, produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, is used to create pest-resistant crops like Bt cotton. The toxin gene is cloned and expressed in plants, providing insect resistance.

Bt toxin exists as an inactive protoxin. In the insect's alkaline gut, it's activated, binds to midgut cells, forms pores, causing swelling, lysis, and insect death.

RNAi is a defense mechanism that silences specific mRNA. In plants, nematode-specific genes introduced via Agrobacterium vectors produce dsRNA, initiating RNAi and protecting the plant from nematodes.

Recombinant DNA technology allows for the mass production of human insulin. Chains A and B are produced separately in E. coli and then combined to form mature human insulin.

A key challenge was assembling the insulin chains into a mature, functional form with correct disulfide bonds.

Gene therapy aims to correct genetic defects by inserting normal genes into a person's cells or tissues to compensate for non-functional genes.

The first clinical gene therapy in 1990 treated a 4-year-old girl with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency, using a retroviral vector to introduce a functional ADA cDNA into her lymphocytes.

Techniques like PCR and ELISA enable early diagnosis of diseases by detecting pathogens or genetic mutations, often before symptoms appear.

PCR amplifies nucleic acids, allowing the detection of very low concentrations of pathogens or mutations, routinely used for HIV and genetic disorder detection.

A radioactive-tagged DNA/RNA probe hybridizes to its complementary DNA. Autoradiography detects the presence or absence of the target gene, useful for identifying mutations.

ELISA is based on antigen-antibody interactions and is used to detect infections by identifying pathogen antigens or antibodies produced against them.

Transgenic animals have manipulated DNA to possess and express foreign genes. They are produced for studying physiology, disease models, producing biological products, and testing vaccine/chemical safety.

Transgenic animals help study gene regulation and their effects on normal body functions and development, such as investigating growth factors.

Many transgenic animals are created as models for human diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's to facilitate research into new treatments.

Transgenic animals can produce valuable biological products for treating human diseases, such as human protein-enriched milk from transgenic cows.

Transgenic mice are being developed to test the safety of vaccines, potentially replacing the use of monkeys.

Transgenic animals engineered to be more sensitive to toxic substances are used for faster toxicity and safety testing of chemicals.

Manipulation of living organisms requires regulation and ethical evaluation of activities that may help or harm them.

Introducing genetically modified organisms into the ecosystem can lead to unpredictable and potentially harmful results.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in India makes decisions regarding the validity of GM research and the safety of introducing GM-organisms for public services.

Patents granted for products and technologies using genetic materials and traditional knowledge of farmers and indigenous people raise ethical concerns and can lead to biopiracy.

Biopiracy is the unauthorized use of bio-resources and traditional knowledge by multinational companies without proper authorization or compensation.

The second amendment of the Indian Patents Bill addresses issues like unauthorized exploitation of bio-resources and traditional knowledge, including patent terms and emergency provisions.