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BIOTECHNOLOGY TERMINOLOGIES

Biotechnology is defined as the industrial application of living organisms and their biological processes suchas biochemistry, microbiology, and genetic engineering, in order to make best use of the microorganisms forthe benefit of mankind.

Different types of biotechnology

I. Green biotechnology: Green biotechnology is defined as the application of biological techniques to plantswith the aim of improving the nutritional quality, quantity and production economics. It is done byimplanting foreign genes to plant species that is economically important. This contains three main areas:plant tissue culture; plant genetic engineering and plant molecular marker assisted breeding.

II. Red biotechnology: Red biotechnology is concerned with the discovery and development of innovativedrugs and treatments. A key prerequisite was an increasing understanding of how proteins function, theirroles in communication between and within cells, and the diseases caused when these proteins malfunction. This includes: Gene Therapy, Stem Cells, Genetic Testing, etc.

III. White biotechnology: This field of biotechnology is connected with industry. White biotech uses moulds,yeasts, bacteria and enzymes to produce goods and services or parts of products. It offers a wide rangeof bio-products like detergents, vitamins, antibiotics etc. Most of the white biotech processes results inthe saving of water, energy, chemicals and in the reduction of waste compared to traditional methods.

IV. Blue biotechnology: Blue biotechnology is concerned with the application of molecular biological methodsto marine and freshwater organisms.It involves the use of these organisms, and their derivatives, formultiple purposes, the most remarkable are the identification process and development of new activeingredients from marine origin.

V. Yellow biotechnology: Yellow biotechnology’ refers to biotechnology with insects — analogous to thegreen (plants) and red (animals) biotechnology. Active ingredients or genes in insects are characterized andused for research or application in agriculture and medicine.

Terminologies associated with the biotechnology

Cell: The cell is the basic structure of the body. The human body is built of billions and trillions of cells. Eachcell contains the hereditary material and can make copies of themselves by reproducing and multiplying. Aftera specific life span the old cells die off. Parts of the cell are called organelles.

DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the developmentand functioning of all known living organisms.

GENE: A gene is a segment of nucleic acid that contains the information necessary to produce a functionalproduct, usually a protein. The genes are made up of a coding alphabet of 4 nucleotides made up of 4 bases:-Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C) present in DNA.

Genetic engineering: Techniques to alter the chemistry of genetic material (DNA and RNA), to introducethese into host organisms and thus change the phenotype of the host organism.

Gene Therapy: This is in a way, genetic engineering of humans, which would allow a person suffering froma disabling genetic disorder to lead a normal life.

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Genome Resource Bank: Genome Resource Bank (GRB) is a frozen repository of biological materials, includingsperm and embryos, tissue, blood products and DNA. It is going to being used as a conservation tool forprotecting and preserving biodiversity.

Human Genome Project: The aim of the Human Genome Project was to identify all the genes (approx.25,000) in human DNA and to determine the sequence of the three billion chemical base pairs that make uphuman DNA. Efforts were made to create databases to store this information and develop tools to docomprehensive data analysis.

Bioinformatics: Bioinformatics is an independent discipline which merges the field of molecular biology andcomputer science. This mainly involves the transformation of biological polymers such as nucleic acids moleculesand proteins into sequences of digital symbols. The symbols and their meaning for the protein sequences havealso been generated.

Bioremediation: Bioremediation is the use of microorganisms for the degradation of hazardous chemicals insoil, sediments, water, or other contaminated materials. It uses naturally occurring bacteria and fungi or plantsto degrade or detoxify substances hazardous to human health and/or the environment.

Biosensors: Biosensors are biophysical devices which can detect the presence of specific substances e.g. sugars,proteins, hormones, pollutants and a variety of toxins in the environment.

Bioreactors: Bioreactors can be thought of as vessels in which raw materials are biologically converted intospecific products, individual enzymes, etc., using microbial plant, animal or human cells.

Bioprospecting is an umbrella term describing the process of discovery and commercialization of new productsbased in biological resources, typically in less-developed countries. Bioprospecting often draws on indigenousknowledge about uses and characteristics of plants and animals. In this way, bioprospecting includes biopiracy,the exploitative appropriation of indigenous forms of knowledge by commercial actors, as well as the searchfor previously unknown compounds in organisms that have never been used in traditional medicine.

Biopiracy is a situation where indigenous knowledge of nature, originating with indigenous people, is used byothers for profit, without permission from and with little or no compensation or recognition to the indigenouspeople themselves.

Green consumerism refers to recycling, purchasing and using eco-friendly products that minimize damage tothe environment. This involves decisions such as using Energy Start appliances that consume less power, buyinghybrid cars that emit less carbon dioxide, using solar and wind power to generate electricity and buying locallygrown vegetables and fruits.

A Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) is a very useful tool to capture the health dimensionsof the environment including air, water and land. The CEPI is intended to act as an early warning tool andcan help in categorising the industrial clusters/areas in terms of priority of planning needs for interventions.

Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of views based on naturally defined areascalled bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features,including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determinationof a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions.

Bioethics: Bioethics is the branch of ethics, philosophy, and social commentary that deals with the biologicalsciences and its impact on the society.

Vaccine: A preparation that contains an agent or its components, administered to stimulate an immuneresponse that will protect a person from illness due to that agent. A therapeutic (treatment) vaccine is givenafter disease has started and is intended to reduce or arrest the progress of the disease. A preventive (prophylactic)

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vaccine is intended to prevent disease from starting. Agents used in vaccines may be whole-killed (inactive),live-attenuated (weakened) or artificially manufactured. It can be created using the recombinant DNA process.

Vector: A vehicle that carries foreign genes into an organism and inserts them into the organism’s genome.Modified viruses are used as vectors for gene therapy.

Virus: A submicroscopic particle that can infect other organisms. It cannot reproduce on its own but infectsan organism’s cell in order to use that cell’s reproductive machinery to create more viruses. It usually consistsof a DNA or RNA genome enclosed in a protective protein coat.

Stem cell: A fundamental cell that has the potential to develop into any of the 210 different cell types foundin the human body. Human life begins with stem cells, which divide again and again and branch off into specialroles, like becoming liver or heart cells. They are an important resource for disease research and for thedevelopment of new ways to treat disease.

Amniocentesis: A procedure used in prenatal diagnosis to look at the chromosomes of the developing fetus.A flexible needle is inserted into the mother’s uterus through the abdomen to remove a sample of the fluidsurrounding the fetus (amniotic fluid). This sample can then be analysed by karyotype to look for changes inthe chromosomes. The procedure can be done after 15 weeks of pregnancy. There is a 0.5% risk of miscarriageassociated with this procedure, which means one in 200 women will miscarry following this procedure.

Embryonic stem cells: Cells that are removed from the early embryo and are able to become any of the 210cell types found in the human body. Researchers are looking at the great potential stem cells have in developingnew treatments for disease and injury.

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APPLICATIONS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotechnology has application in four major industrial areas, including health care (medical), crop productionand agriculture, non food (industrial) uses of crops and other products (e.g. biodegradable plastics, vegetableoil, biofuels), and environmental uses.

Applications of Biotechnology in Medicine

Biotechnology techniques are used in medicine for diagnosis and treating different diseases. It gives opportunitiesfor the people to protect themselves from dangerous diseases.

The field of Biotechnology, genetic engineering has introduced techniques like gene therapy, recombinant DNAtechnology and polymerase chain reaction which use genes and DNA molecules to diagnose diseases and insertnew and healthy genes in the body which replace the damaged cells.

There are some applications of biotechnology which are playing their part in the field of medicine and givinggood results:

• Biopharmaceuticals: The drugs are being developed with the use of microorganisms without using anysynthetic materials and chemicals. Large molecules of proteins are usually the source of biopharmaceuticaldrugs. They when targeted in the body attack the hidden mechanisms of the diseases and destroy themwithout any side effect(s). Now scientists are trying to develop such biopharmaceutical drugs which canbe treated against the diseases like hepatitis, cancer and heart diseases.

• Gene therapy: It is used in delicacy and diagnoses of diseases like cancer and Parkinson’s. The apparatusof this technique is that the fit genes are under attack in the body which either obliterate the injured cellsor replace them. In some cases, the fit genes make corrections in the genetic information and that is howthe genes start performance in the favor of the body.

• Pharmaco-genomics: Pharmaco-genomics is an additional genetically modified method which is used tolearn the genetic information of a personality. It analyzes the body’s reply to sure drugs. It is the mixtureof pharmaceuticals and genomics. The aspires of this field is to expand such drugs which are inserted inthe person according to the genetic information there in the individual.

• Genetic Testing: It is a technique of heredity is used to conclude the genetic diseases in parents, sex andcarrier screening. The technique of genetic testing is to use DNA probes which have the sequence aliketo the mutated sequences. This technique is also used to recognize the criminals and to test the parenthoodof the child.

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• It is completed that no field of science can be winning until it uses the techniques of biotechnology.Scientists are operational in the research area to expand new drugs and vaccines and are also judgmentcures for the diseases which were not easy to treat in the past decade. Biotechnology is a field of miracle.

Applications of Biotechnology in Agriculture

Biotechnology has played major role in agriculture by altering genes, studying and cloning various crops inorder to provide better quality products of foods ultimately improving our lives.

Some of its applications are:

• Vaccines: Oral vaccines have been in the works for much existence as a likely solution to the increase ofdisease in immature countries, where costs are excessive to extensive vaccination. By planning and injectingantigenic proteins into the Genetically Modified crops from transferable pathogens that will activate animmune will be a great help in dealing with such diseases.

An example of this is a patient-specific vaccine for treating cancer. An anti-lymphoma vaccine has beenmade using tobacco plants carrying RNA from cloned malignant B-cells. The resultant protein is then usedto vaccinate the patient and boost their immune system beside the cancer. Tailor-made vaccines for cancertreatment have shown substantial promise in preliminary studies.

• Antibiotics: Plants are used to create antibiotics for both human and animal use. An expressing antibioticprotein in stock feed, fed straight to animals, is less expensive than traditional antibiotic production.

But, this practice raises many bioethics issues, because the result is widespread, possibly needless use ofantibiotics which may encourage expansion of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strain.

• Flowers: There is extra to agricultural biotechnology than just hostility disease or civilizing food quality.There is some simply aesthetic application and an example of this is the use of gene recognition andtransfer techniques to improve the color, smell, size and other features of flowers.

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Similarly, biotech has been used to make improvement to other common ornamental plants, in particular,shrubs and trees. Some of these changes are similar to those made to crops, such as enhancing coldconfrontation of a breed of tropical plant, so it can be grown in northern gardens.

• Biofuels: The agricultural industry plays a big role in the biofuels industry, as long as the feedstock’s forfermentation and cleansing of bio-oil, bio-diesel and bio-ethanol is concerned. Genetic engineering andenzyme optimization technique are being used to develop improved quality feed-stocks for more efficientchange and higher BTU outputs of the resulting fuel products.

High-yielding, energy-dense crops can minimize relative costs associated with harvesting and transportation(per unit of energy derived), resulting in higher value fuel products.

• Plant and Animal Reproduction: Enhancing plant and animal behavior by traditional methods like cross-pollination, grafting, and cross-breeding is time-consuming. Biotech advance let for specific changes to bemade rapidly, on a molecular level through over-expression or removal of genes, or the introduction offoreign genes.

The last is possible using gene expression control mechanism such as specific gene promoters andtranscription factors. Methods like marker-assisted selection improve the efficiency of “directed” animalbreeding, without the controversy normally associated with GMOs. Gene cloning methods must alsoaddress species differences in the genetic code, the presence or absence of introns and post-translationalmodifications such as methylation.

• Pesticide Resistant Crops: Not to be mystified with pest-resistance, these plants are broadminded ofpesticides, allow farmers to selectively kill nearby weeds with no harming their crop. The most well-knownexample of this is the Roundup-Ready technology, urbanized by Monsanto.

First introduced in 1998 as GM soybeans, Roundup-Ready plants are unaffected by the herbicide glyphsate, which can be applied in copious quantity to get rid of any other plants in the field. The profit tothis is savings in time and costs associated with conservative tillage to reduce weeds, or multiple applicationsof different types of herbicides to selectively eliminate exact species of weeds. The probable drawbacksinclude all the controversial arguments against GMOs.

• Nutrient Supplementation: In an attempt to get better human health, mainly in immature countries,scientists are creating hereditarily distorted foods that hold nutrients known to help fight disease orstarvation. An example of this is Golden Rice, which contain beta-carotene, the forerunner for VitaminA manufacture in our bodies. People who eat the rice create more Vitamin A, and necessary nutrientlacking in the diets of the poor in Asian countries.

Three genes, two from daffodils and one from a bacterium, proficient of catalyzing four biochemicalreactions, were cloned into rice to make it “golden”. The name comes from the color of the transgenicgrain due to over expression of beta-carotene, which gives carrots their orange color.

• A biotic strain confrontation: A lesser quantity of than 20% of the earth is arable land but some crops havebeen hereditarily altered to make them more liberal of conditions like salinity, cold and drought. The detectionof genes in plants in charge for sodium uptake has lead to growth of knock-out plants able to grow in high saltenvironments. Up- or down-regulation of record is usually the method used to alter drought-tolerance inplants. Corn and rapeseed plants, capable to thrive under lack conditions, are in their fourth year of field trialsin California and Colorado, and it is predictable that they’ll reach the marketplace in 4-5 years.

• Manufacturing power Fibers: Spider silk is the strongest fiber known to man, stronger than kevlar (usedto make bullet-proof vests), with an advanced tensile power than steel. In August 2000, Canadian companyNexia announces growth of transgenic goats that formed spider silk proteins in their milk. While thissolved the trouble of mass-producing the proteins, the agenda was shelve when scientists couldn’t figureout how to spin them into fibers like spiders do.

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Application of Biotechnology in Food Processing

• Food processing is a process by which non-palatable and easily perishable raw materials are converted toedible and potable foods and beverages, which have a longer shelf life. The method, by which themicrobial organisms and their derivatives are used to increase the edibility and the shelf life of foods, isknown as fermentation.

Almost one-third of the diet in the whole world consists of fermented food. Hence the process offermentation must be carefully monitored especially in rural areas as improper method of fermentationmay cause contamination of food thereby, affecting the health of the people. Fermentation is also usedin preparing microbial cultures, food additives, preservatives, etc. 

• Biotechnology has a major application in the food sector. It helps in improving the edibility, texture, andstorage of the food; in preventing the attack of the food, mainly dairy, by the virus like bacteriophage;producing antimicrobial effect to destroy the unwanted microorganisms in food that cause toxicity; toprevent the formation of mycotoxins; and degradation of other toxins and anti-nutritional elementspresent naturally in food.

• Biotechnology also plays a very important role in protein engineering. In this, favourable enzymes of themicroorganisms, which are responsible for the improved fermentation, are produced commercially at alarge scale by culturing the microorganisms in tanks, etc.

• Fermented foods have traditionally been known for their better flavour, texture and nutritional value. Theirhigh nutritional content led an interest in development of more high yielding strains for obtaining betterquality products. Most fermented foods are produced by solid state fermentation.

Some examples of fermented foods are cheese, idli , dosa, buttermilk etc. Below are the productionprocesses for some of these fermented foods. The basic processes remain the same for these fermentedfood production but the temperatures and detailed procedures differ from place to place.

Yoghurt:

Microorganism: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus (1:1 ratio).

Buttermilk:

Microoganism: Streptococcus lactis and Streptococcus cremoris, Lecuconostoc cremoris.

Cheese:

Microorganism: Streptococcus lactis, Streptococcus cremoris, Lactobacillus lactis for curd formation Penicilliumroquefortii, P. cammebertii for ripening.

Application of Biotechnology in Environment

The use of Biotechnology for solving environmental problems and ecosystem is known as EnvironmentalBiotechnology. It is applied and is used to study the natural environment.

According to the international Society for environmental Biotechnology the environmental Biotechnology isdefined as “an environment that helps to develop, efficiently use and regulate the biological systems andprevent the environment from pollution or from contamination of land, air and water”.

There are five major different types of Applications of Environmental Biotechnology. They are as follows:

Bio-marker:

• This type of Application of environmental Biotechnology gives response to a chemical that helps tomeasure the level of damage caused or the exposure of the toxic or the pollution effect caused. In other

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word, Biomarker can also be called as the Biological markers the major use of this applications helps torelate the connection between the oils and its sources.

Bio-energy:

• The collective purport of Biogas, biomass, fuels, and hydrogen are called the Bioenergy. The use of thisapplication of Environment Biotechnology is in the industrial, domestic and space sectors. As per therecent need it is concluded that the need of clean energy out of these fuels and alternative ways of findingclean energy is the need of the hour. One of the pioneer examples of green energy are the wastes collectedfrom the organic and biomass wastes; these wastes help use to over the pollution issues caused in theenvironment. The Biomass energy supply has become a prominent importance in every country.

Bioremediation:

• The process of cleaning up the hazardous substances into non-toxic compounds is called the Bioremediationprocess. This process is majorly used for any kind of technology clean up that uses the naturalmicroorganisms.

Biotransformation:

• The changes that take place in the biology of the environment which are changes of the complexcompound to simple non-toxic to toxic or the other way round is called the biotransformation process.It is used in the Manufacturing sector where toxic substances are converted to Bi-products.

Benefits:

• The major benefits of environmental biotechnology are it helps to keep our environment safe and cleanfor the use of the future generations. It helps the organisms and the engineers to find useful ways ofgetting adapted to the changes in the environment and keep the environment clean and green.

• The benefit of environmental biotechnology helps us to avoid the use of hazardous pollutants and wastesthat affect the natural resources and the environment. The development of the society should be done insuch a way that it helps to protect our environment and also helps us to develop it.

• The environmental biotechnology has a role to play in the removal of the pollutants. It is becoming anadvantage for the scientists and the environmentalists to find ways to convert the waste to re-useableproducts.

• The applications of environmental biotechnology are becoming a benefiting factor for the environment;the applications includes â ” genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, sequencing and imaging processes areproviding large amounts of information and new ways to improvise the environment and protect theenvironment.

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BIOTECHNOLOGY PROJECTS

A. 1,000 Genomes Project

Introduction:

• Launched in January 2008 with the goal of developing a comprehensive resource of human geneticvariation across worldwide populations.

• It was an international research effort to establish by far the most detailed catalogue of human geneticvariation.

• Scientists planned to sequence the genomes of at least one thousand anonymous participants from anumber of different ethnic groups.

• It was the first project to sequence the genomes of a large number of people, to provide a comprehensiveresource on human genetic variation.

• This resource will aid about understanding of the role of genetic variation in human history, evolutionand disease

There are two kinds of genetic variants related to disease.

(a) Rare genetic variants that have a severe effect predominantly on simple traits (e.g. Cystic fibrosis, Huntingtondisease).

(b) More common, genetic variants have a mild effect and are thought to be implicated in complex traits (e.g.Cognition, Diabetes, and Heart Disease).

• Between these two types of genetic variants lies a significant gap of knowledge, which the 1000 GenomesProject is designed to address.

Data from the 1000 Genomes Project was quickly made available to the worldwide scientific communitythrough freely accessible public databases.

B. International HapMap Project

Introduction:

• The International HapMap Project was an organization that aimed to develop a haplotype map (HapMap)of the human genome.

• HapMap is used to find genetic variants affecting health, disease and responses to drugs and environmentalfactors.

• The information produced by the project is made freely available for research.

• The International HapMap Project is collaboration among researchers at academic centers, non-profitbiomedical research groups and private companies in Canada, China, Japan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom,and the United States.

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• It officially started with a meeting on October 27 to 29, 2002.

Objective:

• To determine the common patterns of DNA sequence variation in the human genome and to make thisinformation freely available in the public domain.

• The HapMap will allow the discovery of sequence variants that affect common disease, will facilitatedevelopment of diagnostic tools, and will enhance our ability to choose targets for therapeutic intervention.

Details:

• The DNA sequence of any two people is 99.5 percent identical. The variations, however, may greatlyaffect an individual's disease risk.

• Sites in the DNA sequence where individuals differ at a single DNA base are called single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs). Sets of nearby SNPs on the same chromosome are inherited in blocks. Thispattern of SNPs on a block is a haplotype.

• Blocks may contain a large number of SNPs, but a few SNPs are enough to uniquely identify thehaplotypes in a block. The HapMap is a map of these haplotype blocks and the specific SNPs that identifythe haplotypes are called tag SNPs.

• The HapMap is valuable by reducing the number of SNPs required to examine the entire genome forassociation with a phenotype from the 10 million SNPs that exist to roughly 500,000 tag SNPs.

• This makes genome scan approaches to finding regions with genes that affect diseases much more efficientand comprehensive, since effort is not wasted typing more SNPs than necessary and all regions of thegenome can be included.

Uses:

• Use in studying genetic associations with disease.

• A powerful resource for studying the genetic factors contributing to variation in response to environmentalfactors, in susceptibility to infection, and in the effectiveness of and adverse responses to drugs andvaccines.

• Using just the tag SNPs, researchers are able to find chromosome regions that have different haplotypedistributions in the two groups of people, those with a disease or response and those without.

• Each region is then studied in more detail to discover which variants in which genes in the regioncontribute to the disease or response, leading to more effective interventions.

• This also allows the development of tests to predict which drugs or vaccines would be most effective inindividuals with particular genotypes for genes affecting drug metabolism.

C. Human Genome Project

Introduction:

• The "genome" of any given individual is unique; mapping the "human genome" involved sequencing asmall number of individuals and then assembling these together to get a complete sequence for eachchromosome. The finished human genome is thus a mosaic, not representing any one individual.

• The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project.

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• Funding came from the US government through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well asnumerous other groups from around the world.

• It remains the world's largest collaborative biological project.

Goal:

• Determining the sequence of nucleotide base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying andmapping all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint.

Applications:

• From the start, the Human Genome Project supported an Ethical, Legal and Social Implications researchprogram to address the many complex issues that might arise from this science.

• It can help us understand diseases including: genotyping of specific viruses to direct appropriate treatment.

• Identification of mutations linked to different forms of cancer.

• The design of medication and more accurate prediction of their effects.

• Advancement in forensic applied sciences.

• Biofuels and other energy applications.

• Agriculture, animal husbandry, bioprocessing; risk assessment; bioarcheology, anthropology and evolution.

• Commercial development of genomics research related to DNA based products, a multibillion-dollarindustry.

As a result of the Human Genome Project, today's researchers can find a gene suspected of causing aninherited disease in a matter of days, rather than the years it took before the genome sequence was in hand.

Techniques include:

(a) DNA Sequencing.

(b) The Employment of Restriction Fragment-Length Polymorphisms (RFLP).

(c) Yeast Artificial Chromosomes (YAC).

(d) Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BAC).

(e) The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

(f) Electrophoresis.

D. Frozen Ark Project

Introduction:

• A British-led project called "Frozen Ark" is preserving the DNA of endangered species before theydisappear.

• It is a charitable frozen zoo project created jointly by the Zoological Society of London, the NaturalHistory Museum and University of Nottingham.

• The project aims to preserve the DNA and living cells of endangered species to retain the geneticknowledge for the future.

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• The Frozen Ark collects and stores samples taken from animals in zoos and those threatened withextinction in the wild, with the expectation that, some day, cloning technologies will have maturedsufficiently to resurrect extinct species.

• The Frozen Ark was a finalist for the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas in 2006.

Mission:

• To collect, preserve and store tissue, gametes, viable cells and DNA from endangered animals for use bothin conservation programmes and to enable society to benefit itself and all life on earth. The projectfocuses on the thousands of animals that are threatened with extinction.

Plan:

• To support the establishment of genome resource banks of endangered animals in many countries, toestablish a database listing where genetic materials are stored worldwide and identifying which species aremost in need of sampling.

What happens with the material collected by The Frozen Ark Project?

• Much of The Frozen Ark sample collection of frozen material is being preserved in -80oC freezers.

• Cultured mammalian cells, tissue and gametes are being prepared and stored in liquid nitrogen.

• Other preservation methods for the long term are ultra-low freezing in pure ethanol, as dried samples onWhatman paper and as freeze dried samples. These methods are useful for countries having unreliablesupplies of electricity.

• The DNA contained in cells and tissues is very stable when it is stored at a cold enough temperature. DNAcan be copied quickly and easily, extracted from just a few cells and amplified millions of times in justa few hours.

E. Biotechnology Park of Women

Introduction:

• Initiative by the Department of Biotechnology.

• Biotechnology Park for Women, the first of its kind in India, at Kelambakkam, 41 kms south of Chennai.

• This scheme seeks to use biotechnology for the uplift of rural women with opportunities for their ownventures.

• The scheme is a collaboration of the Department of Biotechnology, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation(MSSRF) and the Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).

• The project, launched to commemorate the 50th anniversary of India's Independence.

• It will be developed by TIDCO and managed by a society under the chairmanship of eminent agriculturalscientist and architect of India's Green Revolution, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.

• It will be managed by professionals with active stakeholder participation.

• It will also serve as a training centre and would promote regional economic development.

• It will facilitate cooperation among women entrepreneurs and the corporate sector for joint marketingstrategies.

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Mission:

• "to provide opportunities for professionally qualified women to take to a career of remunerative self-employment through the organization of environment friendly biotechnological enterprises."

Objectives:

• The main objectives of this Park are to act as a platform for bringing together women entrepreneurs,scientists, financial institutions and industry.

• The Park aims at developing an integrated approach involving technology identification, incubation,dissemination, training and retraining, development of necessary techno-infrastructure through feasibilitystudies using the criteria of value addition and market demand.

• It will generate skilled employment opportunities among women.

• The highest standards of environmental management will be adhered to in accordance with the UnitedNations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) dealing with environmentally-soundmanagement of biotechnology.

• Application of proven biotechnologies as also commercialization of these technologies would be thepriority.

Facilities

• The design of the Park will be based on the principle of decentralised production supported by appropriatecentralised services to promote a series of high-tech biotechnology -based enterprises.

• These would aim at capturing a number of niche markets in the areas of ag-biotech, food biotech andmedical biotech.

• When fully developed, this Park will consist of industrial incubation centres, ultra -modern multimediainformation complex and quality verification reference laboratories.

• The R&D institutions, the corporate sector and the financial institutions would assist the womenentrepreneurs in achieving the objectives of the Park.

• The Park will serve as a model to foster the technological and economic empowerment of women.

BT Parks set up in India:

(a) Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow BT Park

(b) Andhra Pradesh: Hyderabad BT Park

(c) Assam: Guwahati Biotech Park

(d) Karnataka: Bangalore Biotech Park

(e) Kerala: KINFRA Biotech Park

(f) Odisha: Bio Pharma-IT Park, Bhubaneswar

F. Decoding the Wheat Genome

Introduction:

• The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) is a non-profit organisation establishedin 2005 by a group of wheat growers, plant scientists and breeders from 55 countries.

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• The IWGSC to which India is a partner published the international journal Science a draft sequence ofthe bread wheat genome.

• The goal of the IWGSC is to make a high quality genome sequence of bread wheat publicly available,in order to lay a foundation for basic research that will enable breeders to develop improved varieties.

• India has contributed in developing the draft sequence of the bread wheat genome.

• Wheat has largest content of DNA among all the food crops.

• Decoding genome sequence of wheat can help in developing climate smart wheat.

• Largest genome to be sequenced to-date - raising the prospects of bigger and faster disease-resistant cropsto meet the looming global food shortage.

• The plant is among the world's most important crops and the researchers say the information could helpfarmers create disease-resistant strains of the global food staple.

Advantages:

• A complete and accurate description of the wheat genome will allow for the quick identification of criticalgenes that code for everything from drought resistance to stress resistance.

• Breeders can make sure these genes are in their breeding populations and this will help them improve theirproductivity.

• It will help in identifying genetic characteristics which can boost crop productivity and allow farming indifficult environments.

• This genomics resource has made thousands of markers available to wheat researchers which will facilitatemapping and cloning of genes of agronomic importance in much lesser time and cheaper cost than wasavailable earlier.

• Decoding wheat genome will facilitate our understanding of gene function which will enable develop newgenetic gains of wheat. Taking forward with molecular breeding and genetic engineering we would be ableto develop climate smart wheat (drought/terminal heat tolerance) with higher yield.

G. U.K. grants gene editing licence

• U.K. has granted its first licence to genetically modify human embryos for research into infertility and whymiscarriages happen.

• The decision makes Britain one of the first countries in the world to grant this type of authorisation forexperimentation on human embryos, although similar research has been carried out in China.

• This decision is however, likely to raise ethical concerns. It has also been criticised on the pretext that itwill be employed to develop designer babies. However, the scientists have said that the purpose of geneediting is not to develop designer babies.

Gene editing:

• This is a technique that allows the scientist to edit the gene sequence and then modify it in order to bringthe desired changes. It helps to understand the sequence of genes and then use gene editing to cureincurable diseases like Tay-Sachs and perhaps cystic fibrosis through the modification of genes.

• In addition to that, gene editing can be used as a research tool to simply learn more about these diseases.

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H. GM Mustard Issue

DMH-11 is a Genetically Modified (GM) mustard hybrid. Hybrids are normally obtained by crossing 2genetically diverse plants from the same species. The 1st-generation offspring resulting from it has higher yieldsthan what either of the parents is individually capable of giving. But there is no natural hybridization systemin mustard, unlike in, say, cotton, maize or tomato. This is because its flowers contain both the female (pistil)and male (stamen) reproductive organs, making the plant naturally self-pollinating.

What scientist has done is to create a viable hybridization system in mustard using GM technology. Theresulting GM mustard hybrid, it is claimed, gives 25-30% more yield than the best varieties such as 'Varuna'currently grown in the country.

Scientists at the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) in Delhi University, however,showed that this problem could be addressed by crossing Indian mustard cultivars with juncea lines of EastEuropean origin like 'Early Heera' and 'Donskaja'. The combination of the 2 divergent gene pools enhancedthe crossing options; the resultant F1 progeny were found to exhibit significant heterosis.

What is a controversy about GM Mustard?

• Many scientist claim that at a time when sustainable farming and low-input agriculture are becoming thebuzzwords, it is surprising that agricultural scientists continue to recommend crop varieties that will endup doing more harm to the environment and crop fields. GM mustard will require almost double thequantity of fertiliser and water.

• Other Health concerns of GM Hybrid Mazie include: allergenicity; gene transfer, especially of antibiotic-resistant genes, from GM foods to cells or bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract; and `out crossing', or themovement of genes from GM plants to conventional crops, posing indirect threats to food safety andsecurity.

• GM mustard can affect honeybees directly and indirectly through effecting flowering and pollen production.Protease inhibitors have proved detrimental to the longevity and behaviour of bees.

• Regulatory weakness-The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, which is responsible for approvinglarge-scale releases and commercialisation of GMOs, functions under the Ministry of Environment andForests and is not entirely independent.

• The case of the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation that supervises and clears research activitiesand also small-scale field trials is even starker. It is part of the Department of Biotechnology, whoseprimary task is to promote biotechnology. DBT therefore is the promoter as well as the regulator. Onseveral occasions, developers of transgenic crops have also been members of regulatory committees

In a current environment where climatic change would have negative effects on yield of many major cropswhich could seriously undermine food security, GM crops are the way forward. However at the same time toconvince the opponents of GM crops to allow commercialization of GM crops we need a strong regulatoryframework. What is therefore needed is an independent biotechnology regulatory authority, a single organizationthat will replace the multiple committees - at least six - that are part of the current regulatory structure. Thisauthority would deal with the use of all GMOs in agriculture, pharmaceutical and biodiversity sector.

I. Genetically Modified Mosquito

• A genetically modified insect is an insect that has been genetically modified for various reasons such asagricultural production, oil production and pest control.

• Scientists have moved on from using bed nets and insecticides to kill malaria-spreading mosquitoes, togenetically modify the mosquitoes by inserting a gene that leads to the production of male offsprings.

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• Since only females carry the malaria-causing microorganism, the spread of the disease is controlled in theshort-term while eventually the whole population gets wiped out.

• Scientists injected a gene from a slime mould into the mosquito which attached itself to the X chromosomeduring sperm-making process effectively masking the sperms leading to production of male offsprings.

Methods:

The British company Oxitec use a technique called Release of Insects with Dominant Lethality (RIDL), thatcan produce fertile male adults that induce a high mortality of the descendants. The adults generated with thistechnique and released in the environment are not sterile but their descendants have a survival rate of 0% .This lethality can be switched off by introducing the antibotic, tetracycline, into their diet.

Concerns

There are concerns about using tetracycline on a routine basis for controlling the expression of lethal genes.There are plausible routes for resistance genes to develop in the bacteria within the guts of GM-insects fedon tetracycline and from there, to circulate widely in the environment.

Recent Implementation (Brazil)

• In January 2016 it was announced that in response to the Zika virus outbreak, Brazil's National BiosafetyCommittee approved the releases of more genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitos throughout theircountry.

• Previously in July 2015, Oxitec released results of a test in the Juazeiro region of Brazil, of so-called "self-limiting" mosquitoes, to fight dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses.

• They concluded that mosquito populations were reduced by about 95%

J. Designer babies' or Three parents babies

• A number of children each year are born with faults in their mitochondrial DNA which can cause diseases.Due to it the parts of the body that need most energy are worst affected: the brain, muscles, heart andliver. Faulty mitochondria have also been linked to more common medical problems, including Parkinson's,deafness, failing eyesight, epilepsy and diabetes. Thus Three-parent babies mechanism has been evolvedto decrease the number of children born with diseases.

• Three-parent babies are human offspring with three genetic parents. The procedure replaces a smallamount of faulty DNA in a mother's egg with healthy DNA from a second woman, so that the babywould inherit genes from two mothers and one father. The procedure is intended to prevent mitochondrialdiseases including diabetes mellitus and deafness and some heart and liver conditions.

• The mitochondrial replacement technique has, unsurprisingly, raised objections and ethical considerations.These are as follows:

1) It raises concerns of bioethics because it creates genetic links between the offspring and three parents, asthe child's DNA consists of the genetic material of three people.

2) The method used for this purpose constitutes inheritable germ-line genetic modification. This means thatit is not just the offspring's DNA that is modified, but also the DNA of the generations to follow.

3) Mitochondrial transfer passes on genetic changes from one generation to another. That raises ethicalconcerns because any unexpected problems caused by the procedure could affect people who are not yetborn, and so cannot give their consent to have the treatment. Mitochondria are not completely understood,

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and the DNA they hold might affect people's traits in unknown ways. For that reason, some scientistsbelieve mitochondria should be better understood before the procedures are legalized.

4) The Catholic Church opposes one form of mitochondrial transfer, called pronuclear transfer, because afertilized egg from the mother is destroyed in the process. Catholic ethicists have also complained thatmitochondrial transfer introduces a "rupture" between mother and father and "dilutes parenthood".

5) Implications for identity are another ethical concern that has psychological and emotional impacts on achild's life regarding of a person's sense of identity. It debates whether the genetic make-up of childrenborn as a result of mitochondrial replacement affect their emotional well-being when they are aware thatthey are different from other healthy children conceived from two parents.

Pros of Designer babies

a. Reduces risk of genetic diseases.

b. Reduces risk of inherited medical conditions.

c. Better chance the child will succeed in life.

d. Better understanding of genetics.

e. Increased life span.

f. It can give, the child genes that the parents do not carry.

g. Prevent next generation of family from getting characteristics/diseases.

Cons of Designer Babies

a. Termination of embryos.

b. Could create a gap in society

c. Possibility of damage to the gene pool.

d. Baby has no choice in the matter.

e. Genes often have more than one use.

f. Geneticists are not perfect.

g. Loss of Individuality.

h. Other children in family could be affected by parent's decision.

i. Only the rich can afford it.