II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

Chapter: 12
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION Weightage in Board-5m
No. of questions in NEET-3

Important Definitions:
 Genetically modified organism: Organisms whose genes have been alternated by
manipulation.
 Bt Cotton: Bt coton is a genetically modified pest resistant plant cotton variety, which
produces an insecticide to control bollworm.
 Bt Toxin: Bacillus thuringiensis produces protein crystals that kill certain insects of
lepidopterans, coleopterans, dipterans.
 Cry gene: The Bt toxin is coded by gene named cry (Cry I Ac and Cry II Ab control cotton
bollworms, Cry I Ab control corn borer.)
 Bioethics: Ethics include a set of standards by which community regulates its behavior
 RNA interference (RNAi): This method involves silencing of specific mRNA due to a
complementary dsRNA molecule that binds to and prevents translation of the mRNA
(silencing).
 Gene therapy: The treatment of genetic disorder by manipulating the DNA.
 Transgenic animals: Animals that have had their DNA manipulated to possess and express
an extra (foreign) gene
 Biopiracy: It is the term used to refer to the use of bio-resources by multinational companies
and other organisations without proper authorization from the countries and people concerned
without compensatory payment
 Biopatent: A biological patent is a patent on an invention in the field of biology that by law
allows the patent holder to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing the
protected invention for a limited period of time.

REVISION NOTES
Biotechnology essentially deals with industrial scale production of biopharmaceuticals
and biologicals. The applications of biotechnology include therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically
modified crops for agriculture, processed food, bioremediation, waste treatment and energy
production.
Biotechnology has the following three critical research areas:
 To provide the best catalyst in the form of improved organism, usually a microbe or pure
enzyme.
 To create optimal conditions through engineering for a catalyst to act.
 Downstream processing technologies to purify the protein/organic compound.
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture

VIDYANIDHI
Page 1
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

 Biotechnology applications in agriculture for increasing food production involve

following three options:
(a) Agrochemical based agriculture.
(b) Organic agriculture.
(c) Genetically engineered crop-based agriculture.
 Green revolution increased food production due to the use of:
(a) Improved crop varieties.
(b) Agrochemicals (fertilisers and pesticides).
(c) Better management practices.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are plants, animals, bacteria and fungi whose genes
have been altered by manipulation.
 Genetic modification in plants have lead to following
(a) Crops became more tolerant to abiotic stresses, such as cold, drought, salt, heat, etc.
(b) Dependence on chemical pesticides reduced, i.e. pest resistant crops.
(c) Post harvest losses reduced.
(d) Efficiency of mineral usage increased in plants (preventing loss of soil fertility).
(e) Nutritional value of food is enhanced, e.g. vitamin-A enriched rice
(f) Tailor made plants are created by using GM plants to supply alternative resources to
industries, in the form of starches, fuels and pharmaceuticals.
 Some of the applications of biotechnology in agriculture are the production of pest resistant
plants, which decrease the amount of pesticide used.
 Bt toxin is produced by a bacterium and expressed in plants to provide resistance to
insects, in effect created a biopesticide, e.g. Bt cotton, Bt corn, golden rice, tomato, potato
and soybean, etc.

Bt- Cotton:
 Bt cotton is created by using some strains of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt in
short form,).
 This bacterium produces proteins that kill certain insects such as lepidopteron (tobacco,
budworm and armyworm), coleopterans (beetles) and dipterans (flies and mosquitoes).
 B. thuringiensis forms protein crystals during a particular phase of their growth. These
crystals contain a toxic insecticidal protein.
 Bt toxin protein exists as inactive protoxins, but once an insect ingests the inactive toxin, it
is converted into an active form of toxin due to the alkaline pH of the gut, which solubilise
the crystals.
 The activated toxin binds to the surface of midgut epithelial cells and create pores that
cause cell swelling and lysis leading to death of an insect.
 Specific Bt toxin genes were isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated into
several crop plants as cotton.

VIDYANIDHI
Page 2
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

 Most Bt toxins are insect-group specific. The toxin is coded by a gene named cry, e.g. the
proteins encoded by the genes cry IAc and cry IIAb control the cotton bollworms and cry
IAb controls corn borer.

Pest resistant plants are developed by using biotechnological processes.

 A nematode Meloidegyne incognitia infects the roots of tobacco plants, which reduces the
production of tobacco.
 RNA interference (RNAi) process is used for cellular defence. It involves silencing of a
specific mRNA due to a complementary dsRNA. It occurs in all eukaryotic organisms as a
method of cellular defense.
 dsRNA binds and prevents translation of the mRNA (silencing).
 The source of this complementary RNA could be from an infection by viruses having RNA
genomes or mobile genetic elements (transposons) that replicate via an RNA intermediate.
 Agro bacterium vectors are used to introduce nematode-specific genes into the host plant. It
produces both sense and anti-sense RNA in the host cells.
 These two RNAs are complementary to each other and form a double stranded RNA
(dsRNA) that initiate RNAi and hence, silence the specific mRNA of the nematode.
 The parasite cannot survive in transgenic host, expressing specific interfering RNA. The
transgenic plant thus, gets itself protected from the parasite.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS:

1. “Genetically modified plants can reduce the use of chemical pesticides”. Justify this. (5m).
2. Define RNA interference. Name the nematode for which tobacco plant was made resistant by
this technique. Explain how this resistance was achieved in tobacco plant. (5m)
3. Mention three critical research areas of biotechnology. (3m)
4. What are genetically modified organisms? Mention any four benefits of genetically modified
organisms. (3m)
5. Mention six benefits of genetically modified organisms. (3m)
6. What is Bt toxin? How does it kill cotton boll worms? (3m)

Biotechnological applications in medicine have made immense impact in the area of

healthcare by enabling the mass production of safe and more effective therapeutic drugs.
 The recombinant therapeutics do not induce unwanted immunological responses as in case
of similar products isolated from non-human sources.
 Currently, about 30 recombinant therapeutics have been approved for human use over the
world. In India, 12 of these are presently being marketed

VIDYANIDHI
Page 3
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

1. Genetically engineered Insulin leads to sufficient availability of insulin for the management
of adult-onset diabetes.
 Insulin used for diabetes was earlier extracted from the pancreas of slaughtered cattle and
pigs. This caused allergy or other reactions in some patients.
 Insulin consists of two short polypeptide chains, i.e. chain-A and B, linked together by
disulphide bridges. Maturation of proinsulin into insulin (simplified)
 In mammals, insulin is synthesized as a prohormone (needs to be processed before it
becomes a fully mature and functional hormone) which contains an extra stretch called the
C-peptide.

 C-peptide is not present in the mature insulin and is removed during maturation into
insulin. Thus, the main challenge for the production of insulin using rDNA techniques was
getting insulin assembled into a mature form.
 Eli Lilly an American company in 1983 prepared two DNA sequences corresponding to A
and B-chains of human insulin and introduced them in plasmids of E. coli to produce
insulin chains. Chains-A and B were produced separately, extracted and combined by
creating disulphide bonds to form human insulin.
2. Gene therapy is a collection of methods that allows correction of gene defects, diagnosed in a
child or embryo.
 Genes are inserted into a person’s cells and tissues to treat a disease.
 Correction of a genetic defect involves delivery of a normal gene into the individual or
embryo to take over the function and compensate for the non-functional gene.
 First gene therapy was given to a four year old girl with Adenosine Deaminase (ADA)
deficiency by M Blease and WF Andresco in 1990s.
 ADA is caused due to the deletion of the gene for adenosine deaminase.
 In some children, ADA deficiency can be cured by bone marrow transplantation and
enzyme replacement therapy, but they are not completely curable.

VIDYANIDHI
Page 4
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

Steps involved are as follows:

 In first step of gene therapy, lymphocytes from the blood of the patient are grown in a
culture outside the body.
 A functional ADA cDNA (using a retroviral vector) is then introduced into these
lymphocytes, which are subsequently returned to the patient.
 As these cells are not immortal, the patient requires periodic infusion of such genetically
engineered lymphocytes.
 If the gene isolated from bone marrow cells producing ADA is introduced into cells at early
embryonic stages, it could be a permanent cure.
 Some other diseases that can be treated by gene therapy are hemophilia, cystic fibrosis,
Parkinson’s disease, etc.
Molecular diagnosis helps to solve the problem of early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
 Using conventional methods of diagnosis (serum and urine analysis), early detection of
diseases is not possible.
 To overcome this problem, some molecular diagnosis techniques were developed that
provide early detection of diseases. These are as follows:
 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) helps in early detection of diseases or pathogens by
the amplification of their nucleic acid.
Low concentration of pathogens (bacteria, viruses, etc) in the blood does not allow its
detection. PCR can amplify nucleic acids of such pathogens even when their concentration is
very low. PCR technique can be used for detecting HIV in suspected AIDS patients, genetic
mutation in suspected cancer patients and in identifying genetic disorders.

 Recombinant DNA technology is a modern molecular diagnostic technique. It is done in

the following steps:
A single stranded DNA or RNA tagged with a radioactive molecule called probe, is allowed to
hybridize to its complementary DNA in a clone of cells. The cells are then detected by
autoradiography. The clone having mutated gene will not appear on the photographic film,
because the probe will not have complementarity with the mutated gene.
 Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) is based on the principle of antigen-
antibody interaction. Infection by pathogen can be detected by the presence of antigens
(proteins, glycoproteins, etc) or by detecting the antibodies synthesized against the pathogen.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS:

1. What is gene therapy? Explain the steps involved in curing ADA deficiency by gene therapy.
(3m)
2. Mention three applications of PCR as a tool of molecular diagnosis. (3m)
3. Briefly explain the steps involved in PCR based molecular diagnosis to detect mutations in
cancer patients. (3m)
4. Write a note on production of human insulin by genetic engineering. (3m)
5. Explain the applications of biotechnology in the field of medicine. (5m)
VIDYANIDHI
Page 5
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

TRANSGENIC ANIMALS
 These are the animals whose genome has been altered by introduction of an extra (foreign)
gene by manipulation.
E.g. Transgenic rats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows and fish.
 Over 95% of all existing transgenic animals are mice.
Benefits of transgenic animals
 Normal physiology and development: To study the regulation of genes and their action on
normal physiology & development. E.g. study of complex factors such as insulin-like
growth factor. Genes (from other species) that alter the formation of this factor are
introduced and the biological effects are studied. This gives information about the biological
role of the factor in the body.
 Study diseases: To Study the contribution of genes in the development of a disease and
thereby new treatments: E.g. transgenic models for many human diseases such as cancer,
cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis & Alzheimer’s.
 Biological products: Some medicines contain expensive biological products. Transgenic
animals are used to produce useful biological products by introducing genes which codes for
a particular product. E.g. human protein (α-1-antitrypsin) used to treat emphysema, products
for treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU) and cystic fibrosis etc.
In 1997, Rosie (first transgenic cow) produced human protein-enriched milk (2.4 gm per
litre). It contains the human α lactalbumin and is nutritionally more balanced product for
human babies than natural cow-milk.
 Vaccine safety testing: Transgenic mice are used to test the safety of the polio vaccine. If it
is reliable, they can replace the use of monkeys to test the safety of vaccines.
 Chemical safety testing (toxicity testing): Transgenic animals are made that carry genes
which make them more sensitive to toxic substances than non-transgenic animals. They are
exposed to the toxic substances and the effects studied. It gives immediate results.
ETHICAL ISSUES
 Problem of unpredictable results: Genetic modification may cause unpredictable results.
Indian Government has set up organizations like GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee) to make decisions about the validity of GM research and the safety of GM-
organisms for public services.
BIOPATENT:
 The patent is defined as set of exclusive rights granted by government to an inventor for a
certain period (17 to 20 years) and prevent others from making, using, selling or importing
the given inventions.
 The patents are granted to biological entities and their products are called biopatents or
patenting life forms.
Examples: 1. Strains of micro organisms
2. Genetically modified plants and animals.
3. DNA sequences

VIDYANIDHI
Page 6
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

4. Biotechnological techniques
5. Gene products and their applications.
 Problems of patent: Certain companies have got patents for products and technologies that
make use of the genetic materials, plants etc. that have been identified, developed and used
by farmers and indigenous people of a country. E.g. Basmati rice, herbal medicines
(turmeric, neem etc). Basmati rice has unique aroma & flavor. India has 27 varieties of
Basmati. In 1997, an American company got patent rights on Basmati rice through the US
Patent and Trademark Office. This allowed the company to sell a ‘new’ variety of Basmati.
This was actually derived from Indian farmer’s varieties. Indian Basmati was crossed with
semi-dwarf varieties and claimed as a novelty. Other people selling Basmati rice could be
restricted by patent.
 Biopiracy: It is the use of bio-resources by multinational companies and other organizations
without proper authorization from the countries and people concerned. Most of the
industrialized nations are poor in biodiversity and traditional knowledge. The developing
and the underdeveloped world have rich biodiversity and traditional knowledge related to
bio-resources.
 It has to develop laws to prevent unauthorized exploitation of bio-resources and traditional
knowledge.
 Indian Parliament has cleared the second amendment of the Indian Patents Bill that has
considered patent terms emergency provisions and research and development initiative

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. Explain the benefits of creating transgenic animals. (5m)
2. What is biopiracy? Explain it with reference to Basmati Rice. (5m)

VIDYANIDHI
Page 7
II PUC BIOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION

YEAR QUESTIONS MARKS

March 1. One of the applications of Biotechnology is the production of insect 5
2014 resistant crop plants.’ Justify the statement with reference to BT-
cotton’.
July 2014 1. a)What is biopiracy? Explain if with reference to basmati rice. 3
b) What are genetically modified organisms? Name to Bt toxin 2
producing plant.
March 1. a) Development of Bt-cotton has reduced the use of insecticides. 3
2015 Justify 2
b) Write a note on gene therapy
July 2015 1. What is gene therapy? Name the disorder to which clinical gene 2
therapy was given first. 3
2. In which ways genetically modified plants are useful.
March a) What is gene therapy? Give an example. 2
2016 b) Write a note on biopiracy with reference to Bt-cotton. 3
July 2016 One of the applications of Biotechnology is the production of insect 5
resistant crop plants.’ Justify the statement with reference to Bt-cotton.
March a) What is biopiracy? 2
2017 b) How ADA deficiency was cured by gene therapy? 3
July 2017 What is RNA interference? How does RNA interference helps to 5
develop resistance in tobacco plant against nematode injection?
March One of the applications of biotechnology is to get pest resistant plants- 5
2018 Justify the statement with reference to Bt cotton
July List the benefits of Transgenic animals. 5
2018
March 1. Mention a gene that codes for insecticidal protein in Bt –cotton. 1
2019 2. Explain five benefits of creating transgenic animals.
5
July2019 Briefly explain the uses of transgenic animals? 5
March 1. Explain five benefits of creating transgenic animals. 5
2020
Sept 2020 1. Mention any 2 critical research areas of biotechnology. 2
2. How is ADA deficiency cured by gene therapy? 3

VIDYANIDHI
Page 8