Introduction to Biotechnology PDF

 Introduction The branch of applied science that uses living organisms and their derivatives to produce or modify products and processes. These products and processes feature in: ✔ healthcare, medicine, ✔ biofuels, and ✔ environmental safety. Biotechnology benefits and interacts w...

 Introduction The branch of applied science that uses living organisms and their derivatives to produce or modify products and processes. These products and processes feature in: ✔ healthcare, medicine, ✔ biofuels, and ✔ environmental safety. Biotechnology benefits and interacts with other sciences as biology, microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, Mathematics computer and others.  History The ancient Egyptian civilization provides us with the biotechnological process for production of bread and beer that was depicted on their temples’ walls. ❖ Modern biotechnology ❑ Began around the end of the nineteenth century. ✔ Mendel's work on genetics was completed. ✔ Institutes for investigating fermentation along with other microbial processes by Koch, Pasteur, and Lister. ❑ At the beginning of the twentieth century, ✔ Industry and agriculture started to incorporate biotechnology. ✔ The growing automobile industry, e.g. used fermentation processes to produce acetone and paint solvents. ❑ By mid-century, ✔ Discovery that DNA carries the genetic code and the structure of the "double helix" were described by Watson and Crick. ✔ New techniques were developed to allow manipulation of DNA. ✔ Genetically engineered plants, microbes, animals, and products like insulin. The importance of the new genetics is to identify the structure of the entire human genome, including its three billion base pairs and approximately 22,000 genes. ❑ Today, biotechnology is being used in countless areas including agriculture, clinical applications, bioremediation, forensics, Industry and medicine. The Colors of Biotech ❑ Blue Biotech: the aquatic and marine fields. ❑ Green Biotech: agriculture-related; production of biofertilizers and biopesticides. ❑ Red Biotech centers on Healthcare; drugs, gene and cell therapies, antibodies and molecular diagnosis techniques. ❑ Yellow Biotech covers Food Production. ❑ Brown Biotech: Deserts and dry regions are involved. ❑ Golden Biotech: Bioinformatics, Computational Science and analysis of biological data. ❑ Gray Biotech: Environment, protection, maintenance of biodiversity and removal of pollutants as bioremediation. White Biote:Industrial processes and gene based technologies, as well as the use of enzymes and microorganisms. ❑ Purple Biotech: the laws, ethics and philosophy. ❑ Black Biotech: darker topic: Bioterrorism and biological warfare.  Microbial Growth in Biotechnology (Microbial biotechnology) Advancements in: ✔ enhancing inoculations and disease diagnostic tools, ✔ enhancing microbial agents for biocontrol of plant and animal pests, ✔ adjustments of plant and animal pathogens for reduced pathogenicity, ✔ development of new catalyst support and fermentation organisms, ✔ development of new microbes for bioremediation of water and soil. Microbial genome sequencing and bioengineering researches are essential for advancements in food security, biotechnology, value-added products, human nutrition and food supplements, plant and animal defense, and agricultural fundamental research. Bioprocessing Engineering(biochemical engineering) is a specialization of biochemical engineering or biological engineering. Bioprocess: a process through which biologically driven materials are used, divided into two stages: ✔ a. Upstream processing (USP): i. selection of organism and medium, ii. medium sterilization, iii. inoculation iv. ends with monitoring of the process and product formation and ending with their conversion into the desired products. The selection of microorganisms for the process should be critically done: 1) At first it should have potential to produce particular substance in an economic amounts. 2) It should be non¬pathogenic and non-hazardous. 3) It should be amenable to grow and produce the product in good amounts, ✔ b. Downstream processing( DSP): i. cell/ biocatalyst separation ii. cell disintegration, and iii. product concentration, purification, iv. polishing formulation and packaging. Fermentation Process Fermentation is a metabolic process in which an organism converts carbohydrate into an alcohol or an acid. It was used to describe microbial cultivation under anaerobic conditions. Now , fermentation may be aerobic or anaerobic. Anaerobic fermentations can be carried out either by use of fresh medium, covered with an inert gas such as nitrogen or argon or accumulation of CO2 or foam. Many products are made by large-scale fermentation including amino acids, enzymes, organic acids, vitamins, antibiotics, solvents and fuels. A Fermentor is a device used to accomplish the fermentation process.  Fermentation of grains or fruit produce, ✔ bread, beer and wine ✔ retained much of the nutrition of raw materials, ✔ while keeping the product from spoiling. ✔ The natural yeasts that caused fermentation added some vitamins and other nutrients to the bread or beverage. Lactic acid producing bacteria ferment milk to yogurt and cheese and extend the life of milk products.  Other food products such as pickles, vegetables the fermentation of tea leaves and coffee beans were preserved or enhanced in flavor by fermentation. Process of Fermentation: Divided into six stages: 1. The formulation media used for the growth of the microorganism to be employed as inoculum and also in the production of fermentation products. 2. The sterilization of the medium, fermenter and other associated equipment. 3. The preparation of adequate quantities of pure culture that is to be inoculated into the fermenter. 4. The creation of optimum conditions in the fermenter for optimum growth of the organism and for optimum output of the desired product. 5. The extraction of the product and its purification. 6. The disposal of effluents generated during fermentation. The inter relationships among these six phases, microorganisms, for this reason, it is also called “Biofermentor or Bioreactor“. The advantages in producing materials by fermentation 1. Complex molecules such as antibiotics, enzymes and vitamins are impossible to produce chemically. 2. Optically active compounds such as amino acids and organic acids are difficult to prepare chemically. 3. For the products that can be economically derived by chemical processes, for food purpose they are better produced by fermentation such as beverages, ethanol and vinegar (acetic acid). 4. Fermentation usually uses renewable feed stocks instead of petrochemicals. 5. Reaction conditions are mild, in aqueous media and most reaction steps occur in one vessel. 6. Byproducts of fermentation are usually chemicals. The cell mass and other major by products are highly nutritious and can be used in animal feeds. Drawbacks of fermentation: 1. The products are made in complex solutions in low concentrations as compared to chemically derived compounds. 2. It is difficult and expensive to purify the product. 3. Microbial processes are much slower than chemical processes, increasing the fixed cost of the process. 4. Microbial processes, are subjected to contamination by competing microorganisms, requires the sterilization of the raw materials and the containment of the process to avoid contamination. 5. Most microorganisms do not tolerate wide variation in temperature, pH and are also sensitive to upsets in the oxygen and nutrient levels. 6. Although nontoxic, waste products have high BOD, requires extensive sewage treatment. Though microorganism belonging to bacteria, fungi and yeasts are extensively used in fermentation, few fermentations are also based on algae, plants and animal cells. Several cellular activities contribute to fermentation products such as: 1. Primary metabolites: Ethanol, lactic acid and acetic acid. 2. Energy storage compounds: Glycerol, polymers and polysaccharides. 3. Proteins : enzymes of both extra and intracellular nature and foreign protein. 4. Intermediate metabolites: Amino acids, citric acid, vitamins and malic acid. 5. Secondary metabolites: Antibiotics. 6. Whole cell products: bakers yeast, brewers yeast, bio-insecticides. Primary metabolites are essential for growth and reproduction. Secondary metabolites are not essential for the growth and development of reproducing organism and are produced only in luxuriant conditions.  The secondary metabolites: 1. Secondary metabolites are produced only by few organisms. 2. Secondary metabolites are needed depending on environmental conditions. 3. Secondary metabolites are produced as a group of closely related structures. 4. Some organisms forms a variety of different classes of substances such as secondary metabolites. 5. The regulation of biosynthesis of secondary metabolites differs significantly from that of primary metabolites. 6. Secondary metabolites are mostly produced in iodophase.  Biocatalysis Biocatalysis is the optimization of fermentation conditions which result in significant advantages through the improvement of yield, quality and purity either by using an organism or a component of it. It may through one enzymatic reaction or few steps of enzymatic reactions. For example, the reaction of alcohol and acid mediated by lipase enzyme produce ester. The enzyme may be used pure (enzymatic catalysts) or within a cell without purification (whole cell catalysts). ❑ Whole cell biocatalyst: For example the presence of two respiratory chains of alcohol in acetic acid bacteria. The cell membrane of acetic acid bacteria harbors alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases which able to partially oxidize alcohol to aldehyde and further to the corresponding carboxylic acid. ❑ Enzymatic Biocatalysis Such as lipase that are used in the washing powder for removal of fat stains.