Biotechnology
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Biotechnology is the use of microorganisms, such as bacteria or yeast, or biological substances, such as enzymes, to perform specific industrial or manufacturing processes.
Applications include the production of certain drugs, synthetic hormones, and bulk foodstuffs as well as the bioconversion of organic waste and the use of genetically altered bacteria in the cleanup of oil spills.[1]
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Agricultural Applications
There are three major types of the way that changing plants by using biotechnology: input traits, output traits, and value-added traits. The input traits could help the producers have more control on chemicals required to manage insects, diseases, and weeds, and lowering the cost of production, improving crop yields. Output trait helps consumers by enhancing the quality of the food and fiber products they use.
Biotechnology has found a lot of applucations in agriculture (shows in the table below), ranging from improving the nutritional properties of the crops by using animals as a gene production fatories to using changable crops to make oral vaccines.(Purves, P332)
| Problem | Technology/Genes |
|---|---|
| Improving the environmental adaptations of plants | Genes for drought tolerance, salt tolerance |
| Improving breeding | Male sterility for hybrid seeds |
| Improving nutritional traits | High-lysine seeds |
| Improving crops after harvest | Delay of fruit ripening; sweeter vegetables |
| Using plants as bioreactors | Plastics, oils, and drugs produced in plants |
| Controlling crop pests | Herbicide tolerance; resistance to viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects |
Medical Application
The first clinical gene therapy is underway to correct an enzyme deficiency called ADA in children. Bone marrow cells are removed, defective DNA in bone marrow cells is supplemented with a copy of normal DNA, and the repaired cells are then returned to the patient's body. [2]
Some proteins that are useful in medicine are also made by biotechnology, and there are still hundreds more of then are being developed. Those products that have been developed such as tissue plasminogen activator, are illustrates the techniques that have been used. One example for this use in biotechnology is the recombinant DNA. This kind of DNA has solved the problem of heart attacks and strokes are caused by blood clots. The TPA mRNA are used to made a copy of the cDNA, and it's then inserted into an expression vector and transfected into E. coli. And the transgenic bacteria made the protein in quantity, and it soon became available commercially. Soon this made the drugs that are made form this biotechnology are easy to dissolve the blood clots in people's vessels. (Purves, P331)
| Product | Use |
|---|---|
| Colony-stimulating factor | Stimulates production of white blood cells in patients with cancer and AIDS |
| Erythropoietin | Prevents anemia in patients undergoing kidney dialysis and cancer therapy |
| Factor VIII | Replaces clotting factor missing in patients with hemophilia A |
| Growth hormone | Replaces missing hormone in people of short stature |
| Insulin | Stimulates glucose uptake from blood in people with insulin-dependent (Type I) diabetes |
| Platelet-derived growth factor | Stimulates wound healing |
| Tissue plasminogen activator | Dissolves blood clots after heart attacks and strokes |
| Vaccine proteins: Hepatitis B, herpes, influenza, lyme disease, meningitis, pertussis, etc. | Prevent and treat infectious diseases |
Genetic Engineering
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References
- Life: The Science of Biology. Purves, Sadava, Orians, Heller. 2004. Sinauer Associates, Inc. W.H. Freeman and Company
- Principles of Biotechnology by Iowa State University - University Extension
- Plant Biotechnology by Virginia Cooperative Extension
- Food and Environment by Union of Concerned Scientists
- What is Genetic Engineering by Mothers for Natural Law
