Introduction to Biotechnology Chapter 13

What is biotechnology? “ Any technique that uses living organisms or their products to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific uses” - US Office of Technology Assessment

What kinds of products do we want organism to manufacture?  Human protein replacements  Enzymes useful in manufacturing  Sugars, alcohols, synthetic precursors  Human therapies  Vaccines  Diagnostic tools  Themselves (with help of course)

What kind of organisms do we use?  Bacteria  Yeast  Cell cultures (both human and insect)  Plants  Animals

Biotechnology, the old science  Fermentation in bread making, winemaking, beer brewing How is it done? Fermentation uses yeast to generate alcohol and/or carbon dioxide

Selective Breeding  Also called hybridization  Considered biotechnology  Process by which organism are used to produce something for human use

Modern Uses of Biotechnology  Microorganism to break down toxic wastes  Synthetic insulin  Diagnostic tests for disease  Hardier plants- Genetically modified foods (GM foods)  Snow making capabilities

Major Use of Biotechnology * Discovery and Development of drugs The more we understand about how organisms function at the cellular and molecular level, the more we can try to engineer molecules that will inhibit unwanted processes

Tools and applications of DNA Manipulation  Why? To gather knowledge about how basic life processes are carried out and to make useful products for our daily lives  Tools and Applications: Restriction enzymes, or endonucleases Restriction enzymes, or endonucleases DNA ligase DNA ligase Gel electrophoresis Gel electrophoresis Polymerases Chain Reaction (PCR) Polymerases Chain Reaction (PCR)

Restriction enzymes  Used by bacteria as defense mechanism  Cut both strands of DNA double helix at a specific sequence  100s of these enzymes available commercially  Used to cut a sample of DNA at a certain location according to its nucleotide sequence

DNA Scissors  Restriction enzymes are proteins produced by bacteria that cut DNA at a specific location  Each different restriction enzyme has a specific site  DNA is a palindrome- the sequence at top is same as sequence at the bottom  Complete Exercise #1

Recombinant DNA molecules  Recombinant object is made up of parts taken from more than one source  Your genome is recombinant: Part from your mother and part from your father  Recombinant DNA molecules are pieces of DNA have be reassembled from pieces taken from more than one source of DNA  For example, DNA taken from a plasmid

What is a Plasmid?  Small, circular pieces of DNA within in bacterial cells  They are copied by DNA replication enzymes because they have origin of replication  Often contain genes that have resistance to antibiotics

Gel Electrophoresis  Laboratory technique used to separate fragments of DNA that have been digested by restriction enzymes (cut up)