What is Biotechnology? Various definitions of “Biotechnology”. History of Biotechnology

Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make useful products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use"

The concept of 'biotech' or 'biotechnology' encompasses a wide range of procedures (and history) for modifying living organisms according to human purposes — going back to domestication of animals, cultivation of plants, and "improvements" to these through breeding programs that employ artificial selection and hybridization. Modern usage also includes genetic engineering as well ascell and tissue culture technologies. Biotechnology is defined by the American Chemical Society as the application of biological organisms, systems, or processes by various industries to learning about the science of life and the improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals, crops, and livestock.^[4] In other words, biotechnology can be defined as the mere application of technical advances in life science to develop commercial products.

Biotechnology also draws on the pure biological sciences (genetics, microbiology, animal cell culture, molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology, cell biology).

Conversely, modern biological sciences (including even concepts such as molecular ecology) are intimately entwined and heavily dependent on the methods developed through biotechnology and what is commonly thought of as the life sciences industry. Biotechnology is the research and development in the laboratory using bioinformatics for exploration, extraction, exploitation and production from any living organisms and any source of biomass by means of biochemical engineering where high value-added products could be planned, forecasted, formulated, developed, manufactured and marketed for the purpose of sustainable operations and gaining durable patents rights.

History

Although not normally what first comes to mind, many forms of human-derived agriculture clearly fit the broad definition of " using a biotechnological system to make products ". Indeed, the cultivation of plants may be viewed as the earliest biotechnological enterprise.

Agriculture has been theorized to have become the dominant way of producing food since the Neolithic Revolution. Through early biotechnology, the earliest farmers selected and bred the best suited crops, having the highest yields, to produce enough food to support a growing population. As crops and fields became increasingly large and difficult to maintain, it was discovered that specific organisms and their by-products could effectively fertilize,restore nitrogen, and control pests. Throughout the history of agriculture, farmers have inadvertently altered the genetics of their crops through introducing them to new environments and breeding them with other plants — one of the first forms of biotechnology.

These processes also were included in early fermentation of beer.^[9] These processes were introduced in early Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, and still use the same basic biological methods. In brewing, malted grains (containing enzymes) convert starch from grains into sugar and then adding specific yeasts to produce beer. In this process, carbohydrates in the grains were broken down into alcohols such as ethanol. Later other cultures produced the process of lactic acid fermentation which allowed the fermentation and preservation of other forms of food, such as soy sauce. Fermentation was also used in this time period to produce leavened bread. Although the process of fermentation was not fully understood until Louis Pasteur's work in 1857, it is still the first use of biotechnology to convert a food source into another form.

For thousands of years, humans have used selective breeding to improve production of crops and livestock to use them for food. In selective breeding, organisms with desirable characteristics are mated to produce offspring with the same characteristics. For example, this technique was used with corn to produce the largest and sweetest crops.^[10]

In the early twentieth century scientists gained a greater understanding of microbiology and explored ways of manufacturing specific products. In 1917, Chaim Weizmann first used a pure microbiological culture in an industrial process, that of manufacturing corn starch using Clostridium acetobutylicum, to produce acetone, which the United Kingdom desperately needed to manufacture explosives during World War I.^[11]

Biotechnology has also led to the development of antibiotics. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mold Penicillium. His work led to the purification of the antibiotic by Howard Florey, Ernst Boris Chain and Norman Heatley, penicillin. In 1940, penicillin became available for medicinal use to treat bacterial infections in humans.^[10]

The field of modern biotechnology is generally thought of as having been born in 1971 when Paul Berg's (Stanford) experiments in gene splicing had early success. Herbert W. Boyer (Univ. Calif. at San Francisco) and Stanley N. Cohen (Stanford) significantly advanced the new technology in 1972 by transferring genetic material into a bacterium, such that the imported material would be reproduced. The commercial viability of a biotechnology industry was significantly expanded on June 16, 1980, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that a genetically modifiedmicroorganism could be patented in the case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty. ^[12] Indian-born Ananda Chakrabarty, working for General Electric, had modified a bacterium (of the Pseudomonas genus) capable of breaking down crude oil, which he proposed to use in treating oil spills. (Chakrabarty's work did not involve gene manipulation but rather the transfer of entire organelles between strains of the Pseudomonas bacterium.

Revenue in the industry is expected to grow by 12.9% in 2008. Another factor influencing the biotechnology sector's success is improved intellectual property rights legislation—and enforcement—worldwide, as well as strengthened demand for medical and pharmaceutical products to cope with an ageing, and ailing, U.S. population.^[13]

Rising demand for biofuels is expected to be good news for the biotechnology sector, with the Department of Energy estimating ethanol usage could reduce U.S. petroleum-derived fuel consumption by up to 30% by 2030. The biotechnology sector has allowed the U.S. farming industry to rapidly increase its supply of corn and soybeans—the main inputs into biofuels—by developing genetically modified seeds which are resistant to pests and drought. By boosting farm productivity, biotechnology plays a crucial role in ensuring that biofuel production targets are met.

 

27) Artificial seeds". Embryo culture in vitro

Artificial or synthetic or manufactured seed is encapsulated plant propagule (somatic embryo / shoot bud) in a suitable matrix, containing substances like nutrients, growth regulators, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and mycorrhizae which will allow and help it to grow into a complete plantlet.

A typical synthetic seed has following parts

-plant propagule (somatic embryo or shoot bud)

-Matrix (synthetic gametophyte)

-Seed shell

The concept of artificial seed technology has been applied, commercially and successfully in crops like Azadirachta indica, some orchids (Dendrobium, Spathoglottis plicata, Cymbidium, Phalaenopsis), Alfalfa, Gossypium hirsutum, and Santalum album.

There are many other things to know about this artificial seed technology. Those are as follows

Artificial Seed Production

The first one is how these seeds are manufactured? Visit Artificial Seed Production for the information on this topic. Here we will discuss desiccated and hydrated system and general procedure for artificial seed production.

Advantages of Synthetic Seed

To know what are the various uses and advantages of such seeds visit link advantages and uses of artificial seeds. This page contains sufficient information on the topic.

Embryo culture is a component of in vitro fertilisation wherein resultant embryos are allowed to grow for some time in an artificial medium before being inserted into the uterus.

Typically, embryos are cultured until having reached the 6–8 cell stage three days after retrieval. In many Canadian, American and Australian programmes^{[ citation needed ]}, however, embryos are placed into an extended culture system with a transfer done at the blastocyst stage at around five days after retrieval, especially if many good-quality embryos are still available on day 3. Blastocyst stage transfers have been shown to result in higher pregnancy rates.^[1] In Europe, transfers after 2 days are common.

Techniques

Culture of embryos can either be performed in an artificial culture medium or in an autologous endometrial coculture (on top of a layer of cells from the woman's own uterine lining). With artificial culture medium, there can either be the same culture medium throughout the period, or a sequential system can be used, in which the embryo is sequentially placed in different media. For example, when culturing to the blastocyst stage, one medium may be used for culture to day 3, and a second medium is used for culture thereafter.^[2] Single or sequential medium are equally effective for the culture of human embryos to the blastocyst stage.^[3] Artificial embryo culture media basically contain glucose, pyruvate, and energy-providing components, but the addition of amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, and cholesterol improve the performance of embryonic growth and development.^[4] Methods to permit dynamic embryo culture with fluid flow and embryo movement are also available.^[5] A new method in development uses the uterus as an incubator and the naturally occurring intrauterine fluids as culture medium by encapsulating the embryos in permeable intrauterine vessel.