Correction/Plagiarized by original Tutor
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hortonc_m1_a3.docxBiotechnology, according to American Chemical society is the application of biological organisms, system or processes by various industries to learning about science of life and improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals, crops and livestock. The basic purpose of Biotechnology is primarily to modify living organisms according to human purposes. This takes us back to the reason for domestication of animals, cultivation of crops, and improvement of these through breeding programs that apply artificial selection and hybridization. Naturally, organisms are able to improve themselves through natural means but unfortunately, this takes quite a long time to manifest itself hence the need for man to implement technology on the organisms to achieve results faster.
Biotechnology is applied in a wide variety of fields but is extensively applied in agriculture and crop production and healthcare. This owes to the fact that the two are directly connected to organism and Biotechnology is applied on organisms as described earlier.
In Medicine, Biotechnology is used in both treatment and testing applications. Pharmaceutical manufacture is one of the applications where Biotechnology is applied to produce many proteins for that purpose. For instance, through biotechnology, Escherichia coli bacteria can make insulin given a copy of gene for human insulin. Insulin is then used to treat diabetes in humans. Enzyme replacement therapy is another application where enzyme is administered to persons who have cells that are unable to produce a particular type of enzyme. The administered enzyme is produced by use of modified microorganisms.
Another treatment application of Biotechnology today, stem therapy. Using stem cells-which have special properties that enable them grow into a variety of different tissue types- to replace or supplement particular tissue in a person with genetic condition or health issue. Also, biotechnology is becoming useful in cell cloning which involves taking cells to a lab and growing more to get a good sample of study. Cloning normally assists in diagnosis or to improve effectiveness of other treatments.
In agriculture, plant DNA is modified using genetic engineering techniques. The intention is mainly to introduce a new trait in the plant which doesn’t occur naturally in the species. For instance, genetic modification may introduce crops that are resistant to pest, improved nutrient profile or even reduce spoilage chances.
Conventional Breeding is one of the most important biotechnological tools. The method is used to develop new variety of crops. This began with the knowledge of cross-pollination where desirable features are passed to a plant. The desirable characteristics from different plants are combined in the offspring. Plant breeding has further developed where breeders learnt how to select superior plants and breed them to create new and improved varieties of different crops. Conventional breeding is implemented in two main methods, namely: mutation breeding and pure line and hybrid seed technology.
Another method of crop production that applies biotechnology is tissue culture and micro propagation. This is the cultivation of plant cells, tissues or organism on specially formulated nutrient media. Under right conditions, an entire plant can be regenerated from a single cell. Tissue culture can be implemented in various methods which include, Anther culture whose purpose is to develop improved varieties within a short time. Micro-propagation is a tissue culture method developed for the production of disease-free, high quality planting material and for rapid production of many uniform plants. Tissue culture also includes embryo rescue method which deals with culture of immature embryos of plants in a special medium to prevent abortion of the young embryo and to support its germination. This is used routinely in breeding parental lines having different or incompatible genome such as in introducing important traits of wild relatives into cultivated crops
Genetic engineering is widely used across the world. In genetic engineering, the genetic make-up of organisms is altered using recombinant DNA technology. It involves ability to manipulate individual genes and do transfer of genes across species that would not readily interbreed. Genetically modified crops are also as a result of genetic engineering. They are widely used in the modern day agriculture citing their good characteristics. Biotechnology is being applied in manufacture of Biofuel in a world where biomass source of energy is going mainstream. Plants such as corn and recent study on corn-cobs have proved to be rich in biofuel which is already being used in part if the world to as fuel for vehicle engines.
References
Breuer, U. (2010). Yeast Biotechnology: Diversity and applications. By. Biotechnology Journal, 5(4), 427-428.
Result Filters. (2008, August 17). National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18296309
Westerhoff, H. V. (2012). Biotechnology and the future of medicine: engineering self-sustaining systems. New Biotechnology, 29, S30.
Biotechnology for the 21st Century: NewHorizons. http://www.nal.usda.gov/bic/bio21
