Unit 21 - Biotechnology & Genetic Modification Flashcards
What is the most common type of micro-organisms used in biotechnology?
Bacteria
Why are bacteria useful in biotechnology?
- Capable of producing complex molecules.
- They reproduce rapidly.
- There are few ethical considerations (when growing them in large numbers in labs).
Bacteria possess plasmids. Why is this useful in biotechnology?
Plasmids are an ideal way of transferring DNA from one cell to another during genetic manipulation.
Plasmids
Small, circular loops of DNA.
Yeast
A single celled fungus that uses sugar as its food source.
How does yeast respire?
Anaerobically.
Anaerobic respiration in yeast - WORDS EQUATION
Glucose → Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide
Anaerobic respiration in yeast - CHEMICAL EQUATION
C6H12O6 → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2
What, in anaerobic respiration in yeast, is used as a biofuel?
Ethanol (alcohol)
What are everyday products made with biotechnology?
- Biofuels
- Bread
- Biological washing powders
- Fruit juice production
When will yeast respire anaerobically?
When it has access to plenty of sugar.
What product of anaerobic respiration in yeast is used to make bread dough rise?
Carbon dioxide (it’s caught in the dough, and this causes the bread to rise)
Fruit juice is produced by squeezing the fruits to remove the juice. What enzyme can you add to make more juice?
Pectinase.
How does pectinase work?
- It breaks down a chemical called pectin, which is found in plant cell walls.
- Once pectin is broken down, the cell walls break more easily and so more juice can be squeezed from the fruit.
- Pectinase also helps produce clearer juice
What enzymes do biological washing powders have?
Similar to digestive enzymes.
Advantages of biological washing powders.
- Effective at lower temperatures - so less energy and money is required.
- Can be used to clean delicate fabrics that would’t be suitable for high temperature washing.
Where is lactose found?
Milk.
What is the enzyme (which babies are born with) that breaks down lactose?
Lactase
What does it mean to be lactose intolerant?
People who lose the ability to produce lactase.
What’s lactase?
The enzyme that breaks down lactose.
Symptoms of lactose intolerance:
- Nausea
- Flatulence
- Diarrhoea
How can you make milk lactose free?
By adding lactase to it (so that it breaks down the lactose).
Lactose is a disaccharide. (bonus - What is a disaccharide?)
A disaccharide is any substance that is composed of two molecules of simple sugars.
State the process of lactose being broken down.
Lactose —lactase—> Galactose and Glucose
When and by who was penicillin first discovered?
1928 by Alexander Fleming.
Penicillin
The first antibiotic.
What is penicillin produced by?
By the fungus Penicillium.
How does penicillin work?
It produces a chemical to prevent it being infected by certain types of bacteria.
Penicillin is produced on a large scale using an…
Industrial fermenter.
What are fermenters?
Containers used to grow microorganisms like bacteria and fungi in large amounts.
Advantage of using a fermenter:
Conditions can be carefully controlled to produce large quantities of the exact right type of microorganism.
Mycroprotein
The process of creating food from a fungus.
Genetic modification
Changing the genetic material of an organism by removing, changing or inserting individual genes from another organism.
The gene for human insulin can be inserted into bacteria which then produce human insulin. This can then be collected and purified for medical use to treat people with…
Diabetes.
Examples of genetic modification:
Crop plants (eg. wheat and maize) have been genetically modified to:
- resistant to insect pests.
- resistant to certain herbicides.
Restriction enzymes
USed to isolate the required gene, leaving it with ‘sticky ends’.
What are ‘sticky ends’?
A short section of unpaired bases.
DNA ligase enzyme
Joins the plasmid and the isolated gene together.
Advantages of GM crops:
- better for the environment
- cheaper
- increased crop yields
Disadvantages of GM crops:
- costs more
- reduce biodiversity
- increased dependency on certain chemicals (like herbicides that crops are resistant to).
