Introduction to Biotechnology

Biotechnology Definition

• Biotechnology involves using living organisms or their products to meet human needs.

Historical Timeline of Biotechnology

• Ancient biotechnology: Practiced thousands of years ago.
• Classical biotechnology: Flourished from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s.
• Modern biotechnology: Emerged following the discovery of DNA in the 1950s.
• Early biotechnology relied on natural products to improve living conditions.

Past Biotechnology: Ancient Practices

• Ancient biotechnology involved using yeast in bread, beer, and wine production.
• Bacteria was used to produce yoghurt and cheese.

Past Biotechnology: Classical Developments

• Classical biotechnology saw contributions from scientists, with cell products like enzymes being utilized.
• Antibiotics were discovered during this period.

Present Biotechnology: Genetic Advancements

• Gene technology manipulates DNA to create specific products.
• This branch of biotechnology allows for precise control over end products.
• Genetic engineering makes specific proteins and regulates cell processes.
• Biotechnology is used in food production (GM crops) and human health (medicine) today.

Future Biotechnology: Advancements in Treatment and Green Chemistry

• Biotechnology will contribute towards improved treatments for infectious diseases and cancer.
• Green chemistry modifies proteins to create environmentally friendly products.

Ancient Biotechnology: Agriculture

• Early humans initially hunted and gathered food.
• Agriculture began with raising animals and growing crops.
• Around 10,000 years ago farming started.
• Selective breeding improved food quality and yield over centuries.
• Crossbreeding produced better offspring than inbreeding.
• Agriculture resulted in food surpluses and increased population density.

Ancient Biotechnology: Aboriginal Aquaculture

• 6,000-year-old stones provide evidence of Aboriginal canal systems.
• Eel traps were also used.
• Canals were constructed to connect lakes to the sea and interconnect swamps.

Ancient Biotechnology: Food Production

• Early evidence suggests plant changes originated from wild grains in the Middle East.
• Layers of fossilized grain indicate modifications in grain characteristics.

Ancient Biotechnology: Bread and Cheese Making

• Egyptian tomb carvings show bread making.
• Wheat with easily extracted seeds was needed for bread.
• Yeast evidence is found in Egyptian tombs.
• Bacteria curdles milk in cheese making.
• Yoghurt production functions similarly to cheese making.

Classical Biotechnology: Fermentation

• Fermentation discovered by Gay-Lussac and Pasteur involves yeast breaking down sugar into CO2 and alcohol.
• Classical biotechnology uses biological material and cell products for specific purposes.

Classical Biotechnology: Medicine

• Conventional drugs and medicines come from ancient remedies.
• Awareness about medicinal plants led to the use of plants and fungi in medicine.
• Penicillin was also a first antibiotic.

Classical Biotechnology: Selective Breeding

• Hybridization and artificial pollination improved plants.
• Hybridization produces offspring with traits suited to specific environments.
• Disease resistance may be lost when enhancing other traits in plants.

Modern Biotechnology: Genetic Engineering and Recombinant DNA

• Genetic engineering manipulates DNA.
• The techniques manipulate DNA to meet needs.
• The process involves changing the pattern of bases in the DNA resulting in individuals appearing or acting differently.
• Modifying bacteria involves using enzymes to cut genes and insert them into bacteria to produce insulin.
• Recombinant DNA combines DNA from multiple species.
• Organisms with recombinant DNA are GMOs.
• DNA technology involves the use of biological tools to affect DNA, all of which come from other living organisms like bacteria and viruses.

DNA Manipulation Techniques: DNA Splicing

• Involves cutting out genes and splicing required DNA using restriction enzymes.

DNA Manipulation Techniques: DNA Amplification

• Involves copying genes through polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• PCR uses DNA polymerase to replicate DNA fragments before insertion into a new genome.

DNA Manipulation Techniques: Recombining DNA

• Involves pasting genes together.
• DNA ligase joins pieces of DNA together.
• Forms bonds in the sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA.

DNA Analysis Tech:

• DNA molecules need special techniques to be seen, analyzed and visualize.
• DNA is cut into fragments, identified, and assembled into a whole DNA molecule or genome.

DNA Analysis Tech: Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

• Used to analyze DNA and identify an individual's DNA fingerprint.
• DNA is fragmented and passed through a gel.
• The distribution pattern is seen as bands, each representing a DNA fragment of a particular size.

DNA Analysis Tech: Gene Probes

• It is a specific length of single-stranded DNA (20-1000 nucleotides) complementary to a known DNA sequence from a specific gene.
• Gene Probes can be tagged with fluorescent dye.
• This allows the DNA to be visualized.

DNA Analysis Tech: DNA Sequencing

• Used to precisely determine the nucleotide sequence of DNA.
• Can be done with gel electrophoresis or automated technologies like nanopores.

DNA Analysis Tech: DNA Profiling

• Involves DNA amplification of short tandem repeats (STRs) by PCRs.
• Followed by gel electrophoresis.
• Used to determine relatedness between individuals based on differences in the length of DNA repeats.

Applications of Biotechnology

• Driven by human needs, including food, medical, and agricultural products.
• Encompasses industrial biotechnology and gene technology.

Industrial Biotechnology

• Pollution prevention involves microorganisms to reduce waste.
• Enzymes replace phosphates in washing powder.
• Production of environmentally friendly products like fertilizers and pesticides.
• Biomaterial production uses natural or synthetic substances for medical purposes such as joint replacements and heart valves.
• Biofabrication automates tissue and organ production using 3D printing.
• Synthetic biology uses computers to construct synthetic genomes and create synthetic cells.

Agricultural Applications

• Improves commercial crop quality and economic returns.
• Includes the reproductive technologies and gene technology.

Reproductive Technologies in Agriculture

• Artificial insemination/pollination: used in modern agriculture
• In Vitro Fertilization: is also a modern technique
• Embryo Transfer: is also a modern technique
• Cloning: is also a modern technique
• DNA manipulation inserts desired genes into organisms, creating transgenic species.
• Selective breeding can amplify milk yield and beef quality in agriculture.
• Genetically engineered crops address world hunger.
• Golden Rice is an example.
• Worldwide concern addresses lost biological diversity.
• Biotechnology sustains biological diversity according to the Nagoya protocol.

Conservation Biology

• Genomics and proteomics identify desirable traits and saves favorable germplasm.
• Germplasm is living tissue to form new plants.
• Biotechnology is conserving animal life by mapping relatedness to breeding programs.
• Artificial insemination minimizes extinction risks.
• Globalisation provides wider diversity.
• Captive breeding prevents species extinction.
• Animal genetic material banks preserve genes for biodiversity.

Medical Applications

• Gene therapy: Delivers normal genes to those lacking a functional copy.
• In vitro fertilization: Used for ~40 years and becoming more sophisticated.
• It can help those with fertility issues, preventing inherited diseases in children.

Ethical/Social Implications: DNA Manipulation

• Manipulation of DNA is heavily debated.
• Selective breeding may help agriculture but potentially breaches ethics humans.
• Nazi eugenics: Selective breeding’s problematic applications for humans.
• New biotechnologies can change organism genomes with worldwide implications.
• Cloning and CRISPR: make it easy to alter the genome, combining different species genes.

Case Study: Agricultural Products

• Food and other resources will be needed more by 2050.
• Livestock and crop production can help reduce poverty and hunger in developing countries.
• Solutions involving increases in: food production to meet demand, quality of food needed by incorporating more edible protein and resistance of agriculture to disease, drought and floods.
• Values at stake should be assessed.
• Reflection of genetic progress should be done ethically/legally.
• Increase awareness of dignity and freedom of choice.
• Encourage working to reach international agreement on legality/ethics.
• Analyze ethical/social implications and health/financial considerations.

Ethical Decision-Making

• Bioethics studies science/medicine affect on society.
• Must consider affect and fairness of an action.

Future Direction & Benefits: Biotechnology

• Biotechnology is rapidly evolving.
• CRISPR is a new genome editing technique.
• CRISPR enzymes were discovered in bacteria that chop up DNA from viruses.
• CRISPR-Cas 9 can snip DNA at a particular base using a guide RNA for specific nucleotide sequences.
• Genes can now be spliced and inserted accurately.
• Ethical dilemmas include germline gene editing and 'designer babies'.

Biodiversity Changes

• Biodiversity is necessary for healthy ecosystems.
• Biodiversity needed for long-term species survival.
• Biotechnology can alter evolution causing gene pool to diversify in short term.
• Biodiversity will be reduced in long term because GMO's breed.
• Wild organisms could cross-breed GMOs.
• A disadvantage is the potential to reduce genetic diversity.
• Organisms are being stored for genome if needed to overcome threat of reduced diversity.

Genetic Technologies: Selective Breeding

• Selective breeding involves mating males with the desirable traits with a females displaying a desirable trait
• The offspring will hopefully acquire both.
• This also has hybrid vigor.
• The disadvantages are that there will be a transportation costs involved as the whole animals need to be transported, risk that animals will not mate and undesirable genes may be passed down.
• Solutions used for these problems are artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and Multiple ovulation embryo transfer.

Artificial Insemination

• Collection Sperm from suitable male and introducing it into several females.
• Evident since early 1700's and Became commercial from the 1980's.
• Outcomes Easier to transport, Reduced injury chance, increased offspring and can freeze.

IVF: fertilisation

• Eggs and sperm are fertilized in isolation from the mother.
• resulting zygotes are cultivated before they progress to advanced stages of development.
• Subsequently is transferred into the carrier, surrogate or frozen for further use
• IVF is often done concurrently through multiple ovulation embryo transfer which allows allows for more yearly.

IVF: outcomes

• decreased genetic diversity due to the use of reduced numbers of offspring from small amounts of parents
• increases genes involved infertility rate as the genes get passed that would not have usually been naturally passed down
• creates the risk of alterations and the genetics of a population.

Cloning

• Overcomes the nature of selective breeding.
• Can be achieved on a cellular level (gene cloning) or on genetically identically produced whole organisms (Whole-organism cloning (AKA reproductive cloning).

Genes in Cloning

• Select a gene from donor and inserted into another donor.
• Used to get insulin on a larger scale.
• Can do PCR for in-vitro cloning used in research mostly used to amplify or denature strands.

Whole-organism Cloning: Dolly

• Animals were cloned from somatic cells
• Ethical issues arise
• Artificial Embryo Twinning relatively inexpensive, genetic splitting and has a extensive cattle production
• Plant Propagation is also a cloning technique that produces genetically identical from seed
• AKA Tissue Culture is a micropropagation technique that grows in vitro and is a horticulture

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)

• SCNT involves three animals, nucleus, egg and surrogate mother
• Used to create dolly the sheep.
• Cells are cultivated from a donor, and injected into healthy eggs without the nucleus and forms a cell and the divide to become a embryo into sheep.

Populations alters genetics

• Used in as genetic breeding and maximize production
• Characteristics being used can be controlled with reduced diversity
• Populations less chance to exist when environment is changed.

Recombinant DNA Technology

• Recombinant DNA is a technology used to insert a gene more efficiently to cells with enzyme and fragmentation with base pair.
• Bacterial Plasmid is also important with foreign cell and reinserted for the recombinant production

Delivering Genes

• Four methods that increase speed.
• Microinjection: optical microscope adds DNA to create transgenic specimens
• Biolistics: Mechanically use heat from a gun
• Electroporation Increases heat membranes permeability and can use thermal vector with healthy inserts. Transgenic Species
• Used in genetic engineering to create transgenic specie in organisms with germline
• Bt Cotton has had genes remove pesticide use a protein produces by gene.

Medical uses

• Used research and genetic production for antibodies and vaccines for disease.
• Used to alter genes in animals and produces stem cells with the genes inserted into bone mass.
• In transgenic sheep in Australia a blood clotting sheep lacks is inserted for haemophilia.
• Other diseases such as HIV and hepatitis etc can be introduced.
• As demand grows so does the use to develop non- human transplantation with xeno-transplantation.

Genetic change

• Is produced by all listed methods and are used for individual applications with hybridization,selective breeding, pollination, insemination and recloning for gene, organism DNA.

Benefits Using Genetic Technology

• Transgenic organisms used for better crop in high salinity and drought.
• Enhances nutrition and production
• Atlantic salmon is approved for genetic reproduction.

Medical benefits

• Genomics has been effective and personalised.
• Genetic importance is through insulin and diabetes prevention.
• Antibodies fight antigens

Industrial

• Heavy metals can be harvested from contaminated site
• New enzyme produced Biotechnology on Agriculture
• Genetic reproduction has diversified and altered.

Influences on biotechnologies

• Develop help with life with DNA analysis.
• Social setting for forensic science , paternity tests with Ethics, information privacy.
• Economic factors require consumers to buy at reasonable price.
• Cultural test depend on shared meaning ,ideas that influence their culture.