Biology Biotechnology (slide 6)

Question 1

Biotechnology used in

Answer 1

medicine, agriculture, and cloning

Question 2

What is “biotechnology”?

Answer 2

The use of technology to alter the DNA of organisms

Question 3

Why is biotechnology important?

Answer 3

Biotechnology can be used to diagnose and/or treat disorders (in medicine)

Biotechnology can be used to develop “resistant” crops (in agriculture)

Biotechnology can be used to produce tissues and organisms (in cloning)

Question 4

Ethical issues are

Answer 4

situations where there is no one right answer

Question 5

Each stakeholder’s perspective is

Answer 5

valid

Question 6

Important to note:

Answer 6

What are the perspectives? What is the purpose?

Who is affected?

Who benefits? Who does not benefit?

Who has access? Who is limited from access?

Question 7

Biotechnology for diagnosis through

Answer 7

DNA screening

Question 8

Karyotyping:

Answer 8

Karyotyping is a test to examine chromosomes in a sample of cells. This test can help identify genetic problems as the cause of a disorder or disease.

Question 9

Gene Testing:

Answer 9

Genetic testing is a type of medical test that identifies changes in genes, chromosomes, or proteins. The results of a genetic test can confirm or rule out a suspected genetic condition or help determine a person’s chance of developing or passing on a genetic disorder.

Question 10

There is an ongoing debate about

Answer 10

whether individuals at risk of Huntington disease should be
tested

Question 11

Genetic information is:

Answer 11

Personal

Powerful

Potentially Predictive

Permanent

Prejudicial

Question 12

Biotechnology for treatment

Answer 12

Biotechnology is helping us improve existing vaccines and create new vaccines against infectious agents, such as the viruses that cause cervical cancer and genital herpes. Most of the new vaccines consist only of the antigen, not the actual microbe.

What is Medical Biotechnology? Medical biotechnology is a branch of medicine that uses living cells and cell materials to research and then produce pharmaceutical and diagnosing products.

Question 13

Pharmaceuticals:

Answer 13

Pharmaceutical biotechnology is a relatively new and growing field in which the principles of biotechnology are applied to the development of drugs. A majority of therapeutic drugs in the current market are bioformulations, such as antibodies, nucleic acid products and vaccines.

Question 14

biotechnology for food

Answer 14

Food biotechnology is an umbrella term covering a vast variety of processes for using living organisms—such as plants, animals, microbes, or any part of these organisms—to develop new or improved food products.

Question 15

Transgenic Organism:

Answer 15

Transgenic refers to an organism or cell whose genome has been altered by the introduction of one or more foreign DNA sequences from another species by artificial means. Transgenic organisms are generated in the laboratory for research purposes.

Transgenic organisms contain foreign DNA that has been introduced using biotechnology. Foreign DNA (the transgene) is defined here as DNA from another species, or else recombinant DNA from the same species that has been manipulated in the laboratory then reintroduced.

Question 16

Reproductive Cloning:

Answer 16

Reproductive cloning is defined as the deliberate production of genetically identical individuals. Each newly produced individual is a clone of the original. Monozygotic (identical) twins are natural clones.

create an exact copy of an organisms
-plant or animal

Question 17

Therapeutic Cloning:

Answer 17

Harvest embryonic stem cells
-can create tissues & organs (clinical significance)
-there is less

Question 18

Huntington disease is a genetic
Individuals have a 50 percent chance of having the gene that causes this disease if one of
their parents has it.

Answer 18

genetic disorder that affects nerve cells.
Someone who has the gene will, with certainty, develop the disease. Therefore,
finding out if the gene is present in a person’s body leads to a definite diagnosis.

Question 19

Those against testing argue

Answer 19

cause people needless emotional pain – since there is no cure, there is nothing they can
do. Moreover, critics argue that testing is too expensive,

Question 20

in favour of testing argue that having the test results – positive or negative

Answer 20

– reduces the stress
of uncertainty.
If they test positive, for example, some people may choose not to have
children

Question 21

even people who support the tests argue
that the results must be kept strictly private so that

Answer 21

individuals who test positive are not discriminated
against.

Question 22

Why would we clone the animals we use for meat?

Answer 22

The purpose of cloning is to produce genetic
duplicates (copies) of animals that we considered superior in some way. That way, desirable traits
that occurred naturally, such as higher quality meat, are passed along from generation to generation.
Cloning animals benefits meat and milk producers because high-quality products mean higher profits.

Question 23

cattle could be

Answer 23

genetically engineered to better
resist bovine-spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).

Question 24

Few scientific studies have
examined cloned meat, and livestock companies have done most of the research.

Answer 24

Since these
companies want positive results, some people believe their research may be biased.

Question 25

For example, meat from some cloned animals has higher levels

Answer 25

of fat compared
with meat from the original donor animals.

Question 26

genetically identical animals are more prone to catch the diseases that animals around
them have.

Answer 26

That is, if a virus or micro-organism infects one of these animals, it could easily infect a
whole herd. In nature, a herd would include genetically different animals and would usually include
some animals who immune systems are better able to fight the disease.

Question 27

Canada currently bans the sale

Answer 27

of food
from cloned animals or their offspring.

Question 28

Biotechnology has been used in medicine for diagnosing disorders. Explain how biotechnology
has been used to diagnose Down syndrome and Huntington’s disease.

Answer 28

Karyotyping looks at the chromosome pairs of select cells. Chromosomes should be in pairs. If
chromosome 21 has three chromosomes (known as trisomy 21) this is indicative of Down syndrome.
DNA screening looks at the DNA sequence of chromosomes. Chromosomes are sequences of codons.
If the codon CAG is repeated 36 times in a row it is indicative of Huntington’s disease.

Question 29

Huntington’s disease is a genetic disorder with no cure. What are some ethical questions
related to Huntington’s?

Answer 29

Some questions may include:
 should people who are at risk of Huntington’s disease have children?
 if someone is Huntington’s positive, who should be allowed to have access to that information
 who is responsible for caring for someone with Huntington’s disease?
 are countries who do not have access to tests at a disadvantage?

Question 30

3. Transgenic organisms have been used to develop resistant crops or genetically modified foods
   with “more” nutrition. Bt corn is an example of a GM food. Describe how Bt corn is resistant to
   pests (e.g. the European corn borer).

Answer 30

Bt corn has a protein (Bt) from bacteria injected into the corn.
The Bt protein is toxic to pests but not humans.
The Bt corn, after having the protein inserted into it, now grows and produces the protein itself. When
pests attempt to eat the Bt corn, they will die from the toxin.

Question 31

4. There are two (2) types of cloning. Describe the difference between reproductive cloning and
   therapeutic cloning.

Answer 31

Reproductive cloning implants growing embryos into an organism to produce an offspring.
Therapeutic cloning does not implant growing embryos and, instead, continues to grow embryonic
stem cells.

Question 32

cloning

Answer 32

process of producing identicle offsprings from genes, cells, or entire organisms

Question 33

What is the difference between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning?

Answer 33

• Reproductive Cloning - making genetic copies of entire organisms. - Therapeutic Cloning - making genetic copies of tissues or organs to replace damaged body parts.