Section 2 Flashcards
Fermentation
Microorganisms break down sugars during aerobic respiration
Medicines
Used in biological processes and organisms
Selective breeding
Humans choose plants or animals to breed together in order to yield offspring with desirable traits
Name 3 Past biotechnology uses
Fermentation
Medicines
Selective breeding
Name 5 modern biotechnology uses
- Polymerase chain reactions (PCR)
- Gel electrophoresis
Gene cloning
Whole organism cloning
Artificial insemination
Polymerase chain reactions
Genetic technology that amplifies large amounts of DNA to make it available for other applications such as gel electrophoresis
Gel electrophoresis
Analyses genetic relationship across a range of applications (family connections / forensic investigations)
Gene cloning
Occurs at cellular level and involves identical copies of 1+ genes
Whole organism cloning
New identical organism is created
Artificial insemination
Taking sperm and artificially inserting it into females
Name some future biotechnology
Widespread use of cloning, recombinant DNA technology (eg. Gene therapy)
- inserting or replacing genes to prevent or treat disease
What is a positive impact of genetic diversity
Potential to create new arrangements of genes to increase diversity of traits
Has positive impact on the course of evolution as traits continue to be recombined to best survive in the environment
Concerns with social and ethical uses
Ownership:
- personal and private information is valuable to large companies who willingly pay large sums of money for this info
-gene sequencing allow people to understand more about themselves
(But because we live in a corrupt ass world there could be exploition of this info)
Intellectual property:
- allows for specific processes and products to be patented so people who invented them make profit
-biotechnology becoming more complicated
(Do people have rights to have ownership of DNA sequencing in a person’s body)
Future directions
Synthetic biology
- combines engineering principles with biotechnology
- movement started aiming to characterise the fundamental building blocks of biology, DNA, genes, protein
- help the establishment of international research competitions (IGEM- international genetically engineered machines)
Benefits of biotechnology
Pharmaceuticals -
Such as vaccines
Uses understanding on how immune system responds to invasion of foreign materials (eg virus, antibiotics)
Stem cell treatments
Uses therapeutic cloning to harness stem cells to create skin grafts and treat certain cancers / autoimmune disease
