Biotechnology Overview and Tools

Biotechnology Overview

• Biotechnology uses living organisms or substances from living organisms to create agricultural, medicinal, or environmental products or processes.

Tools in Biotechnology

• Restriction endonucleases: Enzymes that cut DNA at specific sequences. Insertion of new sequences isn't typical, unlike CRISPR.
• Methylases: Enzymes protecting DNA from cleavage or damage.
• DNA ligases: Enzymes joining DNA fragments together.
• Gel electrophoresis: Separates DNA molecules by size, used for analysis, fingerprinting, and paternity testing.
• Plasmids: Circular DNA in bacteria. Scientists use them to study antibiotic resistance and gene expression.
• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): Amplifies DNA sequences, producing multiple copies for testing and research.
• DNA sequencing: Used in projects like the Human Genome Project and the Barcode of Life, determining the order of DNA bases.

Applications of Biotechnology

• Red biotechnology: Medical applications, like producing antibiotics, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, genetic screening, genetic testing, gene therapy, and cloning.
• Green biotechnology: Applied to agricultural processes, including creating transgenic plants (with genes from other organisms) to increase crop yields, nutrition, pest resistance, and environmental stress tolerance. Specific examples include soybeans, canola, cotton, and corn.
• White biotechnology: Related to industrial processes, such as bioremediation (using microorganisms to clean contaminated soil or water) and using enzymes as catalysts for producing or destroying chemicals.
• Blue biotechnology: Applied to marine and aquatic processes, aiming to increase seafood supply and safety, control noxious aquatic organisms, and develop new drugs.
• Other examples: Artificial selection, artificial insemination, brewing, fermentation, gene splicing, stem cell and tissue regeneration, DNA testing, genomic sequencing, protein purification, and microbial synthetic biology.