Biotechnology

• Biotechnology


  Using living things and biological processes to produce a useful product
• Biotechnology is a wide and rapidly expanding field that could be really handy if used to its full potential
• Bacteria can be engineered to produce human insulin


  1. Remove a plasmid (loop of DNA) from a bacterium

  2. Cut the insulin gene out of a human chromosome using a restriction enzyme

  3. Cut the plasmid open using the same restriction enzyme

  4. Mix the plasmid and the human insulin gene

  5. Add ligase to join the sticky ends and produce recombinant DNA

  6. Insert the recombinant DNA into a bacterium

  7. Grow the modified bacterium in a vat to produce insulin
• Restriction enzymes


  Recognise specific sequences of DNA and cut the DNA at these points, leaving one strand with unpaired bases (sticky ends)
• Ligase

  An enzyme that joins the sticky ends together to produce recombinant DNA
• Recombinant DNA


  • Two different bits of DNA stuck together
• Mycoprotein

  A high-protein meat substitute made from the fungus Fusarium, grown on glucose syrup in aerobic conditions
• Making mycoprotein


  1. Culture large amounts of the fungus Fusarium industrially under controlled conditions in large vats

  2. Harvest and purify the fungal biomass to produce the mycoprotein
• Genetically modified (GM) crops

  • Resistant to pests
  • Grow better in drought conditions
  • Provide more nutritional value (e.g. 'Golden Rice' with vitamin A)
• People go hungry


  Because they can't afford to buy food, not because there isn't any food about
• Countries may become dependent on companies who sell GM seeds


  This is a fear about GM crops
• Poor soil is sometimes the main reason why crops fail, and even GM crops won't survive