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BIOTECHNOLGY
It is the application of biological organisms, systems or processes to manufacturing & service industries. Microbes,
plant & animal cells are used to make substances that are useful to human beings.
Making Bread.
The enzymes in yeast act on the sugar added to the flour & ferment it to alcohol & carbon dioxide which makes
the dough to rise.
Wine
It is made from grapes & these are crushed to release sugar. The yeast found on the grape skin ferments the
sugar to make wine.
Micro-organism can be used for production of bio-gas, e.g. methane gas. This gas can be produced from
decomposing cow dung using bacteria. This gas can be used as a substitute fro the gas used fro cooking,
which is fossil fuel.
Bacteria are simple organisms & are often used in genetic engineering because they are easy to manipulate, since
their DNA called plasmids are not enclosed in a nuclear membrane.
Insulin Production
A gene for insulin production in humans can be removed from the human cell & be pasted / attached to the DNA of
Escherichia coli (E.coli), a bacterium that lives in the human digestive tract. Special kinds of enzymes of called
restriction enzymes are used to cut in a very precise way, a specific base sequence of the DNS molecule to remove
targeted gene, which in this case will be the gene for insulin production. This cut of the DNA will then be attached to a
cut portion of the plasmid (bacterial circular DNA) using an enzyme called DNA ligase. The plasmids with the attached
human DNA will than be taken back into the bacterial cell where they start controlling the activity of the bacterial cell.
One of the instructions will be to produce insulin, which can then be extracted and used to help those people who need
it. The bacterial cells divide very rapidly making billions of copies of themselves and each bacterium will be carrying in
its DNA a true copy of the gene for insulin production, i.e. each bacterium cell inherits the human insulin gene.
Gene Therapy
It involves the use of genetic engineering to replace defective / faulty genes with normal genes. This is sometimes
done to correct hereditary diseases such as haemophilia, sickle cell anaemia, cystic fibrosis e.t.c. cystic fibrosis is a
disease in which the person lacks a gene which encodes for cell membrane protein. This results in cells, especially in
the air passages, producing a lot of thick & sticky mucus. In this case, the normal gene can be introduced into the
patient’ lungs by using a harmless form of flu virus. It is hoped, once inside the body that the DNA with the normal gene
can be incorporate itself to the DNA of the body cell & thus correcting the disease. If a normal gene is inserted in any
body cell not a sex cell to correct a particular disorder, it cannot be passed on to future generations & this is called
Somatic gene therapy. It the healthy gene is inserted into a the fertilized egg of a human being or an animal that has a
specific genetic defect, then it will be passed to the future generations resulting in the normal offsprings. This is called
Germline cell therapy.
human body to produce antibodies just like active germs do. These antibodies will be ready to fight germs the moment
they invade the body.
Antibiotics
These are chemicals that are used to kill germs. E.g. penicillin which is produced by a mould. Penicillium is used to
cure bacterial diseases e.g. syphilis & gonorrhea.
This was discovered by a scientist named Alexander, who was growing bacteria on agar plates, but he left one of the
plates open by accident & a mould started to grow on the surface. He noticed that the mould was stopping the bacteria
from spreading; it seemed to be making a substance that killed the bacteria. Eventually the substance was extracted &
used to cure bacterial diseases. The antibiotic, streptomycin is produced by bacteria called streptomyces.