Biology SME copy 1

Key unit competence: Explain the biotechnology involved in the production of ethanol, biogas, and agriculture product                                                          other chemicals and bread making.

Introductory activity 11

Analyze the figure below and answer the questions that follow:

a. What does the figure A show? What is its importance?

b. What are the letters do you read from the figure D? What does the letters mean in full?

c. What is the difference between the two types of rice shown on the figure C?

d. The figure B shows an organic and a GMO tomato? What are the differences between the two types of tomatoes?

e. Suggest how a GMO tomato such as that shown in the figure B could be produced?

11.1 Role of microbes in biotechnology and genetic engineering

Activity 11.1

Based on the figure below, answer the following questions:.

1. What are the roles of microbes in our daily life?

2. How microbes are used in production genetically modified

Biotechnology is a broad discipline that concerning to the use of biology to develop technologies and products for the welfare of human beings. It has various applications in different fields such as Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Processed Food, Waste Management, Energy Production, Genetically Modified Organisms by using living cells and microorganisms (like bacteria, yeast, algae, protozoa and viruses). 

 Those microbes and other living cells are tools used for achieving the role of biotechnology through traditional and genetic engineering (the manipulation of genes) approaches.

In genetic engineering, the genetic information for many biological products and biological processes can be introduced into microbes in order to genetically engineer them to produce a substance or conduct a process. The genes can come from any biological source: human, animal, plant or microbes where the pieces of DNA (genes) are introduced into a host by means of a carrier (vector) system. The foreign DNA becomes a permanent feature of the host, being replicated and passed on to daughter cells along with the rest of its DNA.

Application activity 11.1 

Explain the importance of using microbial biotechnology crop agriculture and health care.

11.2 Applications of biotechnology

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

Applications of biotechnology in medicine

 Biotechnology techniques are used in medicine for diagnosis, vaccines and treating different diseases. It gives opportunities for the people to protect themselves from dangerous diseases. The field of Biotechnology, genetic engineering has introduced techniques like gene therapy, development of vaccines and antibiotics, monoclonal antibodies recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which use genes and DNA molecules to diagnose diseases and insert new and healthy genes in the body which replace the damaged cells.

Application of biotechnoliogy in environment 

 Cleaning up and managing the environment: Cleaning up the environment using living organismsis called bioremediation. Naturally occurring, as well as genetically modified microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, and enzymes are used tovbreak down toxic and hazardous substances present in the environment.

The environmental Biotechnology is defined as “an environment that helps to develop, efficiently use and regulate the biological systems and prevent the environment from pollution or from contamination of land, air and water”. 394394 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 to measure the level of damage caused or the exposure of the toxic or the pollution effect caused. In other word, Biomarker can also be called as the Biological markers the major use of this applications helps to relate 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 this application of Environment Biotechnology is in the industrial, domestic and space sectors. As per the recent need it is concluded that the need of clean energy out of these fuels and alternative ways of finding clean energy is the need of the hour. One of the pioneer examples of green energy are the wastes collected from the organic and biomass wastes; these wastes help use to over the pollution issues caused in the environment. The Biomass energy supply has become a prominent importance in every country.

Bioremediation: The process of cleaning up the hazardous substances into nontoxic compounds is called the Bioremediation process. This process is majorly used for any kind of technology clean up that uses the natural microorganisms. 

Biotransformation: The changes that take place in the biology of the environment which are changes of the complex compound 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 clean for the use of the future generations. It helps the organisms and the engineers to find useful ways of getting 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 wastes that affect the natural resources and the environment. The development of the society should be done in such 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 an advantage for the scientists and the environmentalists to find ways to convert the waste to re-useable products.

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

Application of biotchnology in agriculture

 It is known as Green Biotechnology; it has helped in production of crops with improved disease resistance; herbicide-tolerance and insecticide-resistance. Plants with improved nutritional value for livestock etc. have also been bred through biotechnology. 

Control of pests: 

One application of biotechnology is in the control of insect pests. The genetic make-up of the pest is changed by causing some mutations. These pests become sterile and cannot produce next generation. 

Manufacturing and bio-processing: 

With the help of new biological techniques it has become possible to grow on large scale, the plants that produce compounds for use in detergents, paints, lubricants and plastics etc.

 Food and drinks: 

With biotechnology, it has now become easy to process foods and their products. Preservation and storing of food for consumption later has become easy and cheap with the help of biotechnology. Seedless grapes and seedless citrus fruits have been developed using biotechnology 

Application of biotechnology in industry

 Biotechnology has been used in the industry to produce new products for human welfare. Food additives have been developed which help in the preservation of food. Microorganisms are used in the mass production of items such as cheese, yoghurt, alcohol, enzymes, biofuel, etc.

Application activity 11.2

Why microbes are used in genetic engineering?

11.3 Application of enzyme technology

Activity 11.3

Visit a nearby bakery and verify how bread is prepared. Write a short report on the raw materials and procedures used in making bread up to the final product.

11.3.1 Enzymes in brewing 

Enzymes increase processing capacity and improve economy in the fruit juice and wine industries. The most commonly used enzymes in these industries are pectinase. Pectinase increase juice yields and accelerate juice clarification. They produce clear and stable single-strength juices, juice concentrates and wines, from not only core fruits such as apples and pears, but also stone fruits, berries, grapes, citrus-fruits, tropical fruits and vegetables like carrots, beets and green peppers. Future aspects focus on a wider application of enzymes to brew with high amounts of inexpensive raw materials like barley. Barley contains starch that has to be broken down to fermentable sugars before the yeast can make alcohol. Therefore, traditional brewing contains an extra step compared with wine-making, namely malting in which enzymes needed for the degradation of starch into fermentable sugars are produced.

11.3.2 Enzymes perform many functions in beverages 

The most important field of application for enzymes in the beverage industry is the extraction of fruit juice and vegetable juice. Pectinases, in particular, are employed for apple and pear juice and for juices made from berries and tropical fruits. They break down pectins found in the plant cell walls as supporting substances. This increases the quality of juice extracted and reduces fruit waste. Enzymes can be used in winemaking to increase the preliminary juice extraction and to obtain more high-quality wine. Pectinase not only increase juice yields, but also increase the colour and health-promoting antioxidants in fruit and vegetable juices. They also increase colour extraction and juice volume by reducing fruit and vegetable mash viscosity and improving solid/ liquid separation, Pectinase and Amylase enzyme solutions speed up filtration and prevent storage or post-packaging haze formation by depectinizing and reducing starch in raw juices.

11.3.3 Medical applications of enzymes 

Development of medical applications for enzymes has been at least as extensive as those for industrial applications, reflecting the magnitude of the potential rewards: for example, pancreatic enzymes have been in use since the nineteenth century for the treatment of digestive disorders. The variety of enzymes and their potential therapeutic applications are considerable. At present, the most successful applications are extracellular: purely topical uses, the removal of toxic substances and the treatment of life-threatening disorders within the blood circulation.

11.3.4 Applications of enzymes in baking 

Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history it has been a prominent food in large parts of the world and is one of the oldest man-made foods, having been of significant importance since the dawn of agriculture. 

Bread may be leavened by processes such as reliance on naturally occurring sourdough microbes, chemicals, industrially produced yeast, or high-pressure aeration. Commercial bread commonly contains additives to improve flavor, texture, color, shelf life, nutrition, and ease of manufacturing. 

For decades, enzymes such as maltase and fungal amylases have been used in bread-making. Rapid advances in biotechnology have made a number of exciting new enzymes available for the baking industry. The importance of enzymes is likely to increase as consumers’ demand more natural products free of chemical additives.

Application activity 11.3

Explain the use of enzymes in baking of bread

11.4 Fermentation, fermenters and the antibiotics production

 Activity 11.4 

Recall the fermentation of beer by using banana juice and make short notes to present to in the class. Search also the other uses of fermentation in our everyday life.

11.4.1 Fermentation and fermenters 

Fermentation is anaerobic breakdown of organic compounds by living cells (microorganisms) that produces ethanol and carbon dioxide or lactate (lactic acid). It occurs in yeast and bacteria, but also in oxygen-starved muscle cells, as in the case of lactic acid. Fermentation is also used more broadly to refer to the bulk growth of microorganisms on a growth medium, often with the goal of producing a specific chemical product. French microbiologist Louis Pasteur is often remembered for his insights into fermentation and its microbial causes. The science of fermentation is known as zymology. To many people, fermentation simply means the production of alcohol: grains and fruits are fermented to produce beer and wine.

If a food soured, one might say it was ‘off’ or fermented. Fermentation react NADH with an endogenous, organic electron acceptor. Usually this is pyruvate formed from the sugar during the glycolysis step. During fermentation, pyruvate is metabolized to various compounds through several processes:

metabolized to various compounds through several processes: 

c. Ethanol fermentation or alcoholic fermentation, is the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide.

 d. Lactic acid fermentation refers to two means of producing lactic acid: Homolactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid exclusively. Heterolactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid as well as other acids and alcohols

Sugars are the most common substrate of fermentation, and typical examples of fermentation products are ethanol, lactic acid, Carbon dioxide, and hydrogen gas (H2). However, more exotic compounds can be produced by fermentation, such as butyric acid and acetone. Yeast carries out fermentation in the production of ethanol in beers, wines, and other alcoholic drinks, along with the production of large quantities of Carbon dioxide. Fermentation occurs in mammalian muscle during periods of intense exercise where oxygen supply becomes limited, resulting in the creation of lactic acid. 

A fermenter also known as bioreactors are an apparatus that maintains optimal conditions for culture and growth of microorganisms (on liquid or solid media) to be used in large-scale fermentation and in the commercial production of antibiotics and hormones. The processes that take place in fermenters refers as fermentation which includes aerobic and anaerobic processes.

Application of enzymes in breads making 

Bread production involves harvesting the wheat, separating the grain from the husk, crushing the grain to make flour, mixing the flour with water and then finally baking it. The main difference between unleavened and leavened bread is that leavened or risen bread uses leavened dough, and unleavened bread does not. If the leavened bread is desired, then one adds yeast and allowing the bread to sit for a specific amount of time, depending on the type of bread being made.

11.5 Antibiotics

Activity 11.5

Read the following passage on the production of penicillin by Alexander Fleming Dr Alexander Fleming, 

the bacteriologist on duty at St Mary’s Hospital, returned from a summer vacation in Scotland to find a messy lab bench and a good deal more. Upon examining some colonies of Staphylococcus aureus, Dr Fleming noted that a mold called Penicillium notatum had contaminated his Petri dishes. After carefully placing the dishes under his microscope, he was amazed to find that the mold prevented the normal growth of staphylococci, it took Fleming a few more weeks to grow enough of the mold so that he was able to confirm his findings. His conclusion turned out to be phenomenal: there was some factor in the Penicillium mold that not only inhibited the growth of the bacteria but, more important, might be harnessed to combat infectious disease. That substance that inhibited the growth of bacteria was called antibiotics.

From the passage, answer the questions that follow:

a. What is the importance of antibiotics?

b. What may be the uses of penicillin?

11.5.1 Uses of antibiotics 

Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight certain infections by either stopping bacteria from reproducing or by destroying them. Before bacteria can multiply and cause symptoms, the body’s immune system can usually kill them. The word antibiotic means “against life.” Any drug that kills germs in your body is technically an antibiotic. 

Penicillin, an important part of our anti-microbial armament, had a significant impact on the second half of the twentieth century. Deep-fermentation methods, which were primarily developed for the production of penicillin during the war, gave rise to the development of antibiotics and contributed to the nascent biotechnology industry which appeared in the 1970s.

How do antibiotics work? 

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. Some are highly specialized and are only effective against certain bacteria. Others, known as broad-spectrum antibiotics, attack a wide range of bacteria, including ones that are beneficial to us.

There are two main ways in which antibiotics target bacteria. They either prevent the reproduction of bacteria, or they kill the bacteria, for example by stopping the mechanism responsible for building their cell walls. There are now hundreds of different types of antibiotics, but most of them can be broadly classified into six groups. These are outlined below.

 Penicillin – widely used to treat a variety of infections, including skin infections, chest infections and urinary tract infections. 

Tetracyclines – can be used to treat a wide range of infections; commonly used to treat moderate to severe acne and rosacea, which causes flushing of the skin and spots.

11.5.2 Antibiotic resistance 

Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic has lost its ability to effectively control or kill bacterial growth; in other words, the bacteria are “resistant” and continue to multiply in the presence of therapeutic levels of an antibiotic.

a. Why do microbes become resistant to antibiotics?

 Antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon. When an antibiotic is used, microbes that can resist that antibiotic have a greater chance of survival than those that are “susceptible.” Susceptible microbes are killed or inhibited by an antibiotic, resulting in a selective pressure for the survival of resistant strains of microbes.

Some resistance occurs without human action, as microbes can produce and use antibiotics against other microbes, leading to a low-level of natural selection for resistance to antibiotics. However, the current higher-levels of antibioticresistant microbes are attributed to the overuse and abuse of antibiotics.

In some countries and over the Internet, antibiotics can be purchased without a doctor’s prescription. Patients sometimes take antibiotics unnecessarily, to treat viral illnesses like the common cold.

b. How do microbes become resistant? 

Some microbes are naturally resistant to certain types of antibiotics. However, microbes may also become resistant in two ways: by a genetic mutation or by acquiring resistance from another bacterium.

 Mutations, rare spontaneous changes of the microbes’s genetic material, are thought to occur in about one in one million to one in ten million cells. Different genetic mutations yield different types of resistance. Some mutations enable the microbes to produce potent chemicals (enzymes) that inactivate antibiotics, while other mutations eliminate the cell target that the antibiotic attacks. Still others close up the entry ports that allow antibiotics into the cell, and others manufacture pumping mechanisms that export the antibiotic back outside so it never reaches its target.

Microbes can acquire antibiotic resistance genes from other microbes in several ways.

By undergoing a simple mating process called “conjugation,” microbes can transfer genetic material, including genes encoding resistance to antibiotics (found on plasmids and transposons) from one bacterium to another. Viruses are another mechanism for passing resistance traits between microbes. The resistance traits from one bacterium are packaged into the head portion of the virus. The virus then injects the resistance traits into any new microbes it attacks. Microbes also have the ability to acquire naked, “free” DNA from their environment. Any microbes that acquire resistance genes, whether by spontaneous mutation or genetic exchange with other microbes, have the ability to resist one or more antibiotics. Because microbes can collect multiple resistance traits over time, they can become resistant to many different families of antibiotics.

11.5.3 Implications of antibiotic use 

Antibiotics are considered the keystone of modern medicine, but their excessive use continues to generate unwanted side effects. While specialists are making strides to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics and to slow potential infections through better policy, the overuse of antibiotics continues to have severe health consequences around the world.

Application activity 11.5 

Nowadays some antibiotics are not treating the diseases that they used to treat. Explain why 

End unit assessment 11

1. Summarize the advantages of using enzymes 

2. Explain the medical applications of enzymes

3. Explain how bacteria become resistant.

4. What do you understand by antibiotic resistance?

5. What are the main ingredients of bread?

6. Explain why microorganisms are particularly suitable for industrial use.

7. Explain the application of biotechnology

8. Describe the role of genetic engineering in area of medicine and veterinary