- Biotechnology is the technique of using live organisms or their enzymes for products and processes useful to humans.
- The European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) defines biotechnology as “the integration of natural science and organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues for products and services”.
Biotechnology deals with:
- Microbe-mediated processes (e.g., making curd, bread, wine).
- In vitro fertilization (test-tube baby programme).
- Synthesis and use of a gene.
- Preparation of DNA vaccines.
- Correcting a defective gene.
Principles of Biotechnology
Core Techniques of Modern Biotechnology
- Genetic Engineering: The technique in which genetic material (DNA and RNA) is chemically altered and introduced into host organisms to change the phenotype.
- Bioprocess Engineering: Maintenance of a sterile environment in chemical engineering processes for growing desired microbes or eukaryotic cells for the manufacture of antibiotics, vaccines, enzymes, etc.
Basic Steps in Genetically Modifying an Organism
- Identification of DNA with Desirable Genes: Traditional hybridization leads to inclusion and multiplication of undesirable genes along with desired genes. In genetic engineering, only desirable genes are introduced.
- Introduction of the Identified DNA into the Host: A vector DNA, such as a plasmid, is used to deliver an alien piece of DNA into the host organism.
- Maintenance of Introduced DNA in the Host and Transfer to Its Progeny: A piece of alien DNA lacks the sequence called origin of replication (ori) needed for starting replication, so it cannot multiply itself in the progeny cells. Hence, alien DNA is integrated into the recipient genome (which has ori). It multiplies and is inherited along with host DNA.
- The process of joining and inserting a foreign piece of DNA into a host organism to produce new genetic combinations is called recombinant DNA technology.
- The first recombinant DNA (rDNA) was produced by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer in 1972.
- They isolated an antibiotic resistance gene from a plasmid of Salmonella typhimurium, linked it with a plasmid vector, and transferred it into Escherichia coli. As a result, the gene was expressed and multiplied in E. coli.