Biotechnology

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Biotechnology
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What Is Biotechnology?

• Using scientific methods with organisms to
  produce new products or new forms of organisms
• Any technique that uses living organisms or
  substances from those organisms to make or modify
  a product, to improve plants or animals, or to
  develop microorganisms for specific uses

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What Is Biotechnology?

• GMO- genetically modified organisms.
• GEO- genetically enhanced organisms.
• With both, the natural genetic material of the
  organism has been altered.
• Roots in bread making, wine brewing, cheese and
  yogurt fermentation, and classical plant and
  animal breeding

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What Is Biotechnology?

• Manipulation of genes is called genetic
  engineering or recombinant DNA technology
• Genetic engineering involves taking one or more
  genes from a location in one organism and either
• Transferring them to another organism
• Putting them back into the original organism in
  different combinations

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What is the career outlook in biotechnology?

• Biotech in 1998
• 1,300 companies in the US
• 2/3 have less than 135 employees
• 140,000 jobs
• Jobs will continue to increase exponentially
• Jobs are available to high school graduates
  through PhDs

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What Subjects Are Involved With Biotechnology?

• Multidisciplinary- involving a number of
  disciplines that are coordinated for a desired
  outcome
• Science
• Life sciences
• Physical sciences
• Social sciences

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What Subjects Are Involved With Biotechnology?

• Mathematics
• Applied sciences
• Computer applications
• Engineering
• Agriculture

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What Are the Stages of Biotechnology Development

• Ancient biotechnology- early history as related
  to food and shelter Includes domestication
• Classical biotechnology- built on ancient
  biotechnology Fermentation promoted food
  production, and medicine
• Modern biotechnology- manipulates genetic
  information in organism Genetic engineering

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What Are the Areas of Biotechnology?

• Organismic biotechnology- uses intact organisms
  Does not alter genetic material
• Molecular biotechnology- alters genetic makeup to
  achieve specific goals
• Transgenic organism- an organism with
  artificially altered genetic material

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What Are the Benefits of Biotechnology?

• Medicine
• Human
• Veterinary
• Biopharming
• Environment
• Agriculture
• Food products
• Industry and manufacturing

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek
• Discovered cells
• Bacteria
• Protists
• Red blood

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Gregor Johan Mendel
• Discovered genetics

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Walter Sutton
• Discovered Chromosomes

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Thomas Hunt Morgan
• Discovered how genes are transmitted through
  chromosomes

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Ernst Ruska
• Invented the electron microscope

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Sir Alexander Fleming
• Discovered penicillin

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Rosalind Elsie Franklin
• Research led to the discovery of the double helix
  structure of DNA

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• James Watson and Francis Crick
• Discovered DNA

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Mary-Claire King
• Mapped human genes for research of cancer
  treatments

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What Did These Individuals Contribute to
Biotechnology?

• Ian Wilmut
• Created the first true clone, the Dorset ewe Dolly

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What Is Molecular Biology?

• Molecular biology- study of molecules in cells
• Metabolism- processes by which organisms use
  nutrients
• Anabolism- building tissues from smaller
  materials
• Catabolism- breaking down materials into smaller
  components

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What Is a Cell?

• Cell- a discrete unit of life
• Unicellular organism- organism of one cell
• Multicellular organism- organism of many cells
• Prokaryote- cells that lack specific nucleus
• Eukaryote- cells with well-defined nucleus

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What Is a Cell?

• Cells are building blocks
• Tissue- collection of cells with specific
  functions
• Organs- collections of tissues with specific
  functions
• Organ systems- collections of organs with
  specific functions

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What Are the Structures in Molecular Genetics?

• Molecular genetics- study of genes and how they
  are expressed
• Chromosome- part of cell nucleus that contains
  heredity information and promotes protein
  synthesis
• Gene- basic unit of heredity on a chromosome
• DNA- molecule in a chromosome that codes genetic
  information

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Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
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What Is Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)?

• Transcription- process of RNA production by DNA
• DNA-thread-like molecule which decodes DNA
  information

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What Is Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)?

• Kinds of RNA
• mRNA- RNA molecules that carry information that
  specifies amino acid sequence of a protein
  molecule during translation
• rRNA- RNA molecules that form the ribosomal
  subunits Mediate the translation of mRNA into
  proteins
• tRNA- molecules that decode sequence information
  in and mRNA
• snRNA- very short RNA that interconnects with to
  promote formation of mRNA

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What Are Genetic Engineering Organisms?

• Genetic engineering- artificially changing the
  genetic information in the cells of organisms
• Transgenic- an organism that has been genetically
  modified
• GMO- a genetically modified organism
• GEO- a genetically enhanced organism

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How Can Genetically Engineered Plants Be Used?

• Agriculture
• Horticulture
• Forestry
• Environment
• Food Quality

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How Do We Create Transgenic Organisms?

• Donor cell- cell that provides DNA
• Recipient cell- cell that receives DNA
• Protocol- procedure for a scientific process
• Three methods used in gene transfer
• Agrobacterium gene transfer- plasmid
• Ballistic gene transfer- gene gun
• Direct gene transfer- enzymes

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How Does Agrobacterium Gene Transfer Work?

• Extract DNA from donor
• Cut DNA into fragments
• Sort DNA fragments
• Recombine DNA fragments
• Transfer plasmids with bonded DNA
• Grow transformed (recipient) cells

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What Are Methods of Classical Biotechnology?

• Plant breeding- improvement of plants by breeding
  selected individuals to achieve desired goals
• Cultivar- a cultivated crop variety

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What Are Methods of Classical Biotechnology?

• Plant breeding methods
• Line breeding- breeding successive generations of
  plants among themselves
• Crossbreeding- breeding plants of different
  varieties or species
• Hybridization- breeding individuals from two
  distinctly different varieties
• Selection

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Why Are Plants Genetically Engineered?

• Resist pests
• Resist herbicides
• Improved product quality
• Pharmaceuticals
• Industrial products

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What Is AI?

• Artificial insemination- the transfer of
  collected semen to a recipient female
• Semen is collected from males of desired quality
• Semen is graded and stored

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What Is AI?

• Female must be in estrus for conception
• Hormone injections may be used to synchronize
  estrus
• Semen is placed in the cervix near the horns of
  the uterus

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What Is a Test Tube Baby?

• In vitro fertilization- fertilization of
  collected ova outside the reproductive tract
  Usually in a test tube
• Semen is collected from males of desired quality
• Ova are removed from females
• Sperm and ova are placed in a petri dish or test
  tube

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What Is Gender Reversal?

• Gender reversal- changing the sex of an animal
• Very young animals receive hormone treatments
• Most common among selected fish species

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What Is Gender Preselection?

• Gender preselection- choosing the sex of
  offspring
• Sperm sorted before conception
• Sperm sorted on basis of chromosome differences
• X chromosomes produce female offspring
• Y chromosomes produce male offspring

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What Is Embryo Transfer?

• Embryo transfer- removing fertilized ova
  (embryos) from donor and implanting in a
  recipient
• Surgical and nonsurgical methods are used to
  remove and implant
• A quality donor female can produce more offspring

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What Is Multiple Ovulation?

• Multiple ovulation- promoting increased release
  of ova during estrus
• Hormone injections administered prior to estrus
• Used with embryo transfer
• AI may be used to fertilize ova
• After fertilization, embryos are removed and
  placed in recipients

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What Is Cloning?

• Clone- new organism that has been produced
  asexually from a single parent
• Genotype is identical to parent
• Cells or tissues are cultured

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How Are Hormones Used in Animal Production?

• Hormone- natural product of glands to produce a
  response in another part of the body
• Released by endocrine glands into blood system
• Hormones are identified, functions determined,
  and isolated
• Used to increase growth and production rates
• bST- promotes milk production in cows
• pST- promotes lean meat production in swine

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What Is Bioremediation?

• Bioremediation- using biological processes to
  solve environmental problems
• Biodegradation- natural processes of microbes in
  breaking down hydrocarbon materials
• Biodegradable- capable of being decomposed by
  microbes

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How Can Bioremediation Be Used?

• Oil spills
• Wastewater treatment
• Heavy metal removal
• Chemical degradation

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What Is Phytoremediation?

• Phytoremediation- process of plants being used to
  solve pollution problems
• Plants absorb and break down pollutants
• Used with heavy metals, pesticides, explosives,
  and leachate

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What Is Composting?

• Composting- a process that promotes biological
  decomposition of organic matter
• Compost bin- a facility that contains materials
  for composting
• In-vessel composting- using enclosed containers
  for composting

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What Are Bioethics?

• Ethics- knowing right from wrong, and then doing
  the right idea
• Bio- living organisms
• Bioethics- knowing right from wrong with living
  organisms, and then doing the right idea
• http//www.oelwein.k12.ia.us/hs/Ag.Home/biotecheth
  ics.htm

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Creating Bioethics Arguments

• Read this article from the school website
  http//www.oelwein.k12.ia.us/hs/Ag.Home/dwnld/Ethi
  cs.in.Biotech.pdf
• After you read this article prepare ethical
  arguments with at least 5 Scientific and Factual
  claims to support your Premise and Conclusion

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Ethical Arguments

• Create an ethical argument for or against the
  following topics
• Human Cloning
• Gender Reversal on Livestock
• Gender Reversal on Humans
• Genetic Engineering of Plants
• Genetic Engineering of Humans

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Creating a Premise

• Human cloning is immoral.
• Now you must find Scientific and Factual Claims
  to support your Premise
• After you have at least 5 Claims, you may
  conclude, Therefore, human cloning is immoral.
• You do not have to be for or against any of the
  topics, its your choice!