Biotechnology – definition
What is Biotechnology?
Biotechnology is 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.
Microorganisms, plants, or animals can be used, and products could be new or rare.
Biotechnology is multidisciplinary, covering many areas:
1.
Cell and molecular biology.
2.
Microbiology.
3.
Genetics.
4.
Anatomy and physiology.
5.
Biochemistry.
6.
Engineering.
7.
Computer science.
1. 세포와 분자 생물학. 2. 미생물학. 3. 유전학. 4. 해부학과 생리학. 5. 생화학. 6. 기술설계. 7.
컴퓨터 과학.
There are many applications of biotechnology:
• Virus-resistant plants and livestock.
• Diagnostics for detecting genetic diseases and acquired diseases.
• Therapies that use genes to cure diseases.
• Recombinant vaccines to prevent diseases.
• Biotechnology can also aid the environment, through bioremediation.
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.
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Trends – how things change with time
We can see how all science develops, including biotechnology. Research depends on the
development of new techniques and tools. New research is based on the findings from previous
research. We will look at major developments in the microscopes, cell theory, biochemistry,
computer science, and genetics.
Why understanding Trends in Biotechnology helps us study biotechnology.
The main word here is understanding. If you can understand how our knowledge of
biotechnology has changed and developed over time, you can also understand how one
discovery or development can prepare researchers for the next steps.
An example is when we look at the development of our knowledge of the structure of DNA. People
had to contribute information about: chromosomes; the number of bases in DNA; the shape of
the bases; the chemistry of the phosphate-sugar complex; the x-ray diffraction pattern of the
molecule; and so on. If we can understand why we needed this information, then it will help us
understand much more about DNA and the process of biotechnology.
The origins of biotechnology: breeding animals and plants and using
products of living things
II.
A.
Ancient Biotechnology..
History of Domestication and Agriculture
1. People began to develop farm societies about 10,000 years ago.
2. Early farmers grew wheat, barley, and possibly rye.
3. 7,000 years ago, people used sheep, goats, cattle, and also hunted and used grinding stones in
food preparation.
4. Early farmers arrived in Egypt six thousand years ago with cattle, sheep, goats, and crops such
as barley, emmer, and chick-pea.
5. People began to stop and stay in one place:
a) Population increases and the need for food.
b) Changes in climate.
c) Reduced numbers of free (wild) animals.
d) Able to control their environment.
6. People collected the seeds of wild plants to grow and
began selective breeding of plants and animals.
Left eosinte, right:maize, middle: maize-teosinte hybrid
http://teosinte.wisc.edu/images.html
Author John Doebley
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Toni Barros athttp://flickr.com/photos/12793495@N05/3233344867. cc-by-sa-2.0.
B.
Ancient Plant Germplasm.
1. Farmers saved seeds and tubers, (with the plants genes), from season to season for thousand
of years.
2. A Russian plant geneticist, developed the first organized, logical plan for crop genetic resource
management.
3. The U S developed the National Seed Storage Laboratory.
4. Germplasm is in danger because of agricultural expansion and the use of herbicides.
5. There is now a global effort to save germplasm for gene banks.
The eight centers of origin identified by Nikolai Vavilov, the Russian plant geneticist
Region
Crops
Near East
(Fertile Crescent)
Wheat and barley, flax, lentils, chickpea, figs, dates,
grapes, olives, lettuce, onions, cabbage, carrots,
cucumbers, and melons; fruits and nuts
Africa
Pearl millet, Guinea millet, African rice, sorghum, cowpea,
Bambara groundnut, yam, oil palm, watermelon, okra
China
Japanese millet, rice, buckwheat, and soybean
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South East Asia
Wet- and dryland rice, pigeon pea, mung bean, citrus
fruits, coconut, taro, yams, banana, breadfruit, coconut,
sugarcane
Mesoamerica & North America
Maize, squash, common bean, lima bean, peppers,
amaranth, sweet potato, sunflower
South America
lowlands: cassava
midaltitudes and uplands (Peru): potato, peanut, cotton,
maize
C. History of Fermented Foods and Drinks.
1. Fermented Foods.
 Fermentation is a microbial process which enzymatically changes organic compounds.
Fermentation produces foods such as bread, wine, and beer.
 Fermentation was used for years without knowing the processes.
 Pasteur found out about baker’s yeast.
 The Chinese in 4000 BC produced yogurt, cheese, fermented rice, and soy sauces.
 Milk has been eaten since 9000 BC, producing cheese, cream, yogurt, sour cream, and
butter.

Modern cheese manufacturing involves these major steps:
–Inoculating milk with lactic acid bacteria.
–Adding enzymes such as rennet to curdle casein (a milk protein).
–Heating.
–Separating curd from whey.
–Draining the whey.
–Salting.
–Pressing the curd.
–Ripening
2.
Fermented Beverages.
 Beer making began around 5000 BC, using cereal grains such as rice, and wheat.
 Brewers knew nothing about the microbial basis of fermentation.
 In 1680, Anton van Leeuwenhoek looked at samples of fermenting yeast under a
microscope.
 Between 1866 and 1876, Pasteur finally showed that yeast and other microbes were
responsible for fermentation.
 Wine was probably first made by accident, when yeast and other microbes grew in grape
juices.
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III.
Classical Biotechnology.
A. Fermentation developed from ancient times to now.
B. Classical and modern biotechnology has improved fermentation. Many new and important
compounds can be produced.
C. Brewers began making alcohol on a large scale in the early 1700s.
D. Vinegar is another product that shows progress in technology.
Large quantities of vinegar are produced by Acetobacter on a substrate
of wood chips.
E. The amount of fermentation products increased from 1900 to 1940.
Glycerol, acetone, butanol, lactic acid, citric acid, and yeast biomass for baker’s yeast
were developed.
 Industrial fermentation was developed to make glycerol for explosives.
 Aseptic (무균의) techniques improved industrial fermentation by the 1940s, as well as the
control of nutrients, aeration, methods of sterility, and product purification.
 The modern fermenter, also called a bioreactor, was developed to mass-produce
antibiotics such as penicillin and others.

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Bioreactor drawing by YassineMrabet CC-BY-SA
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Bioreactor_principle.svg/578px-Bioreactor_principle.svg.png
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F.
4.
Classical biotechnology products with important therapeutic value:

In the 1950s, cholesterol was converted to cortisol and the sex hormones by reactions such
as microbial hydroxylation reactions (addition of an –OH group to cholesterol).

By the mid-1950s, amino acids and other primary metabolites (molecules needed for cell
growth) were produced, as well as enzymes and vitamins.

By the 1960s, microbes were being used as sources of protein and other molecules called
secondary metabolites (molecules not needed for cell growth).
Now, many chemicals are produced:
Amino acids.
Pharmaceutical compounds such as antibiotics.
 Many chemicals, hormones, and pigments.
 Enzymes with a large variety of uses.
 Biomass for commercial and animal consumption (such as single-cell protein).


Summary:
At the beginning, people didn’t know how living things worked.
But they knew that they could use living things to change their food or the environment.
They studied what to do (ology) to make or change things (tech) using living things (bio)
As people found out more about how living things worked, they could use those living
things to make new or different products.
People were using more different types of organisms and producing many more different
products.
Careful studies and new techniques led to the discovery of new organisms.
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