Biotechnology

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Biotechnology

• HW Read 206-212
• Pg 202 1-15, 17-21
• Pg 208 1,2,4
• Pg 212 1-4

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(No Transcript)
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What is Biotechnology?

• Biotechnology is a broad term to describe any
  technology that is based on biology especially in
  the fields of
• Agriculture
• Food Science
• Medicine

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BiotechGenetic Engineering?

• Is Biotechnology the same as Genetic Engineering?
• No exactly. Biotechnology is a more broad term
  encompassing procedures such as artificial
  selection and hybridization.

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Biotechnology applications

• Why is biotechnology important?
• Health Care improvements
• Crop production increases (transgenic crops)
• Industrial use of crops (biodegradable plastics,
  biofuels)
• Bioinformatics (pharmaceuticals)
• Bioengineering (artificial organs/limbs)

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Breeding

• Breeding is a form of selective breeding, a
  biotechnology that arose long ago.
• Initially served to improve harvestable crops and
  domesticate animals.
• teosinte? corn
• wolves? domestic dogs
• Works by an outside force (usually human)
  picking desired offspring and only allowing
  those to reproduce further.
• Can lead to inbreeding (breeding of organisms
  with similar genotypes)

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Breeding

• Inbreeding with similar genotypes often leads to
  homozygous offspring for multiple generations,
  known as true-breeding (remember from intro to
  genetics?)
• Outbreeding crosses distantly related individuals
  to try and gain the desired traits from each
  (hybridization)

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Genetic Engineering

• Not Jurassic Park.
• Means direct manipulation of genes.
• 5 step process
• Isolate gene(s) of interest
• Insert gene into a vector
• Transfer vector to organism
• Wait for organisms genes to become altered
• Select for organisms that have become altered

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How do I isolate a gene?

• Restriction Enzymes are proteins that break DNA
  in specific ways at specific locations.
• The resulting fragments of DNA are run in a gel
  to separate them.

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How a gel works

• An electric current is run through the gels
  causing the DNA fragments to drift towards the
  positive current.
• Large DNA fragments travel slower than small DNA
  fragments.
• After an amount of time, the fragments spread out
  and provide a DNA fingerprint

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Types of Gels

• Often in biotechnology you hear about different
  types of gels
• Northern blot (uses RNA to study genes)
• Southern blot (checks for presence of DNA)
• Western blot (detects specific proteins)
• SDS Page (separates proteins by size or shape)

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CSI

• DNA fingerprinting can be very helpful in solving
  crimes.
• Often we hear that a hair sample or blood stain
  aid in solving a murder. How?
• Hair and blood contain DNA. Therefore, DNA can
  be extracted from these samples and help identify
  the owner and possibly pinpoint the culprit!