Biotech and GM Flashcards
How is vinegar produced?
Using acetic acid bacteria
They produce acetic acid from sugars or ethanol
Obligate aerobes
Grow well at pH<5
How is vitamin C produced using biotech?
Acetic acid bacteria can carry out incomplete oxidation of some higher alcohols and sugars
These metabolic products are used to make vitamin C
How can antibiotics be produced using biotech?
Produced particularly by the streptomycetes
>500 distinct antibiotics are produced by the streptomycetes
Some species produce >1 antibiotic
How is Swiss cheese produced using biotech?
Propionic acid bacteria
Produce carbon dioxide and propionic acid during fermentation
Gas building up forms the holes
Propionic acid gives characteristic taste
What is the first human protein commercially produced using bacteria and when did it go on sale? What was it called?
Insulin
1982
Humulin
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How is it most efficient to produce insulin via biotech?
Most efficient to construct artificial gene that encodes final hormone rather than make large precursor protein insulin naturally derives from
What are the issues with expressing mammalia genes in bacteria?
Eukaryotic genes must be put under the control of a bacterial promoter
Bacterial genes don’t have introns
Codon bias
Mammalian proteins require post-translational modifications that bacteria may not be able to do
Eukaryotic protein may be toxic to prokaryotes
Protein may be degraded in the host cell
What is a potential solution to eukaryotic genes needing to be put under control of a bacterial
Design special expression vectors with bacterial promoters and ribosome binding site
How do you overcome the issue that bacterial genes don’t have introns?
Introns must be removed from eukaryotic genes
Could clone gene via mRNA and cDNA
How do you overcome the issue of codon bias in expressing mammalia genes in bacteria?
Codon usage varies from organism to organism
May need to alter the codons used to fit with those recognised by your bacterial species
What is pathway engineering?
Process of assembling a new or improved biochemical pathway using genes from one or more organisms
Aiming to produce large amounts of a particular metabolite
What is bioremediation?
Microbial clean up of environmental pollutants by metabolising or detoxifying environmental pollutants like oil, radionuclides, pesticides and plastics
What are microbial plastics?
Biodegradable plastics made by bacteria
Issues with cost of production vs. synthetic plastics and competition with biofuels for carbon substrates
How can microbes help with mining?
Microbial leaching
Can use microbes to extract valuable metals form low grade ores
Microbes have diverse metabolisms
What is the metagenome?
Collective genome of all the organisms growing in an environment
What is gene mining?
Isolating potentially useful novel genes without having to first culture the organism
Metagenomics has identified novel genes, often encoding enzymes with industrial applications
Can be used to screen directly for enzymes with certain properties
What is plant biotechnology?
Application of science and tech to plants, parts, products and models, to alter living or inert materials, in order to develop knowledge, goods and services
What was the green revolution?
A planned international effort in the 1970s to increase crop yield through new crop cultivars, irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides and mechanisation
Reduced chronic hunger from 40% to 20% of world population whilst the population has doubled
Saved millions of hectares of land from cultivation
What did plant breeding and the green revolution achieve specifically?
Faster growth (more than one crop cycle per year)
High yield (better soil assimilation and better biomass)
Semi dwarf habit
Disease resistance (wheat rust and rice blast)
Adaptability to local conditions
Why is plant tissue culture useful?
Some plants can regenerate from a cutting
Micropropagation
Eliminating systemic viruses