Introduction: Biotechnology is an emerging field of research as it has the potential to solve many biological problems which could not be solved till now with conventional techniques. The use of biology to develop technologies and products for the welfare of human beings is known as Biotechnology. It has various applications in different fields such as Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Processed Food, Waste Management, Energy Production, Genetically Modified Crops etc. Biotechnology means 'applications of scientific and engineering principles to biological processes to provide goods and services'. Full understanding of biological processes is possible with detailed analysis of gene structure and function i.e. the Genetic Engineering means the introduction of manipulated genetic material (DNA) into a cell in such a way as to replicate and be passed on to progeny cells'. The outcome is attractive and promising.

1. BIOTECHNOLOGY
Dr. Seema Gaikwad
Vinyan Mahavidyalaya, Sangola

2. Application of Biotechnology
Introduction: Biotechnology is an emerging field of research as it has the potential to solve many
biological problems which could not be solved till now with conventional techniques.
The use of biology to develop technologies and products for the welfare of human beings is
known as Biotechnology. It has various applications in different fields such as Therapeutics,
Diagnostics, Processed Food, Waste Management, Energy Production, Genetically Modified
Crops etc.
Biotechnology means 'applications of scientific and engineering principles to biological
processes to provide goods and services'. Full understanding of biological processes is possible
with detailed analysis of gene structure and function i.e. the Genetic Engineering means the
introduction of manipulated genetic material (DNA) into a cell in such a way as to replicate and
be passed on to progeny cells'. The outcome is attractive and promising.

3. Scope of Biotechnology
• Genetic engineering in biotechnology stimulated hopes for both therapeutic proteins, drugs and
biological organisms themselves, such as seeds, pesticides, engineered yeasts, and modified human cells
for treating genetic diseases. The field of genetic engineering remains a heated topic of discussion in
today’s society with the advent of gene therapy, stem cell research, cloning, and genetically-modified food.
Biotechnology is the applied science and has made advances in two major areas, viz., molecular biology
and production of industrially important bio-chemical.
• The use of Biotechnology in Agriculture is known as Green Biotechnology. Biotechnology had
contributed a lot towards the upliftment of agriculture. The organisms formed after manipulation of genes
is known as Genetically Modified Organisms such as Crops, Animals, Plants, Fungi, and Bacteria etc.
Genetically modified crops are formed by manipulation of DNA to introduce new trait into the crops.
These manipulations are done to introduce traits such as pest resistance, herbicide resistance, weed
resistance, production of transgenic crops with improved quality traits etc.

4. Pest Resistant Crop- (e.g. Bt Cotton)
Biotechnology has provided techniques for the creation of crops that express anti pest characteristics naturally,
making them very resistant to pests, as opposed to having to keep dusting them and spraying them with
pesticides. An example of this would be the fungus Bacillus thuringiensis genes being transferred to crops.
Bt. Cotton- Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium that produces an endotoxin which is insecticidal. This
toxin when taken in by an insect, the insect get paralyzed and dies off. The gene responsible for producing
endotoxin is isolated and inserted into the genome of the cotton plant. This prevents the cotton plant from the
attack of the insects.
Bt cotton refers to transgenic cotton which contains endotoxin protein inducing gene from soil bacterium
Bacillus thuringiensis. The first transgenic plant was developed in 1983 in tobacco (Fraley et.al.1983) in
U.S.A. In cotton, the first transgenic plant was developed in 1987 in U.S.A. by Monsanto, Delta and Pine
companies (Benedict and Altman, 2001). The transgenic cotton is of two types viz. (1) bollgaurd and (2)
roundup ready cotton. The former confers resistance to bollworms and the latter is resistant to herbicides. The
area under herbicide resistant transgenic cotton is restricted to USA.

5. Pest Resistant Crop- (e.g. Bt Cotton)
This bacterial gene, introduced genetically into the cotton seeds, produces an insecticidal protein (Cry1Ac) which protects the
plants from bollworm (A. lepidoptora), a major pest of cotton. In many regions, the main pests in commercial cotton are
lepidopteran larvae, which are killed by the Bt protein in the genetically modified cotton they eat.
• Bt cotton has several advantages over non-Bt cotton. The important advantages of Bt cotton are:
 Increases yield of cotton due to effective control of three types of bollworms, viz. American, Spotted and Pink bollworms.
 Insects belonged to Lepidoptera (Bollworms) are sensitive to crystalline endotoxic protein produced by Bt gene which in turn
protects cotton from bollworms.
 Reduction in insecticide use in the cultivation of Bt cotton in which bollworms are major pests.
 Potential reduction in the cost of cultivation
(depending on seed cost versus insecticide costs).
 Reduction in es and predators which help in controlling
the bollworms by feeding on larvae and eggs of bollworm.
 No health hazards due to rare use of insecticides,
(particularly who is engaged in spraying of insecticides).

6. Herbicide resistant plant (Round Up Ready soybean)
• A genetically modified soybean is a soybean (Glycine max) that has had DNA
introduced into it using genetic engineering techniques. In 1998 the first genetically
modified soybean i.e. varieties of glyphosate-resistant soybeans was introduced to
the U.S. market, by Monsanto.
• The Roundup Ready® soybean was developed to help farmers manage weeds in
their fields. When weeds are left to compete with soybeans for the entire growing
season, yield losses can exceed 75%. Nearly all soybean fields receive some type of
herbicide treatment. Monsanto scientists developed the Roundup Ready® soybean
technology as a tool to help farmers control weeds in soybean fields.

7. Herbicide resistant plant (Round Up Ready soybean)
The Roundup Ready® soybean began with the discovery of a naturally occurring gene in the environment
that was responsible for conferring tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate (which is commercially known as
Roundup®). The gene, abbreviated as CP4 EPSPS, was found in a microbe. Roundup Ready Soybeans
express a version of EPSPS (transgene- Enolpyruvinylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, EPSP synthase)
from the CP4 strain of the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The gene was isolated and extracted from
the microbe and then inserted into a plasmid. Using particle gun bombardment and plant transformation,
scientists inserted the gene into the genome of the soybean (Glycine max).

8. Transgenic crops with improved quality traits (Flavr Savr tomato, Golden rice)
Genetically modified crops are the crops whose genes are modified using genetic engineering techniques. These are also
called transgenic crops. The main goal of using GMO’s is to increase the yield of the crop and to produce disease-resistant
crops.
A. Flavr Savr tomato: Flavr Savr (also known as CGN-89564-2; pronounced "flavor saver"), a genetically modified
tomato, was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. It
was produced by the Californian company Calgene, This transgenic tomato was no longer able to produce
polygalacturonase (PG), which is an enzyme involved in fruit softening, due to an deactivated gene. Tomatoes are
normally picked before ripening when they are still green and ripened artificially by ethylene treatment. The Flavr Savr
tomatoes, however, are left to ripen on the vine and still have a long shelf life, which was thought to allow them to
develop. Scientists knew that polygalacturonase had the ability to dissolve cell wall pectin, which was the key to fruit
softening, so they proposed to suppress PG accumulation in ripening tomatoes by introducing a reverse-orientation copy
of the gene, an “antisense” copy designed to prevent or drastically reduce the formation of PG.” In 1987, Calgene
researchers cloned a PG gene along with methods of transformation and regeneration. They inserted this PG antisense
gene into the DNA of some tomatoes. The reason for inserting PG antisense gene was to reduce the amount of PG
produced in the tomato.

9. Flavr Savr Tomato
Some unmodified tomatoes are picked before fully ripened and are then artificially ripened using
ethylene gas which acts as a plant hormone. Picking the fruit while unripe allows for easier
handling and extended shelf-life. Flavr Savr tomatoes, on the other hand, could be allowed to
ripen on the vine, without compromising their shelf-life. The intended effect of slowing down the
softening of Flavr Savr tomatoes would allow the vine-ripe fruits to be harvested like green
tomatoes without greater damage to the tomato itself.

10. Transgenic crops with improved quality traits (Flavr Savr tomato, Golden rice)
B. Golden rice:
Vitamin A is required by all individuals, deficiency of vitamin A causes night blindness.
Throughout the world 124 million children are suffers of Vitamin A. The rice is used as staple
food almost in every country. Rice provides as much as 80 percent or more of the daily
caloric intake of 3 billion people, which is half the world’s population. Prof. Ingo Potrykus
and Peter Beyer produced genetically engineered rice by introducing three genes associated
with the biosynthesis of carotenoid. The transgenic rice was rich in pro-vitamin A. Vitamin A
is synthesized from carotenoid. Grains of transgenic rice is yellow in color due to pro-
vitamin A, the rice is commonly known as "golden rice". This Rice could save a million
KIDS a year.

11. Golden rice
Golden Rice is a transgenic variety of rice, with genes for the synthesis of b-carotene taken from the
temperate garden favourite Narcissus pseudonarcissus (daffodil) and inserted into the genome of a
temperate strain of rice, using Agrobacterium tumefaciens as the vector, to effect the transfer. The
original golden rice was created in 1999 by a collaboration between Peter Beyer and Ingo Potrykus. To
do this, they added three genes to rice: phytoene synthase (psy) and lycopene β- cyclase from daffodil
(Narcissus pseudonarcissus) and phytoene desaturase (crt I) from the soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora.
Agrobacterium transformation was used to introduce three different plasmids into the rice genome.