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Technological Manipulation of Biological Organisms

Due to the technological advances in agriculture, world food production has doubled since 1960. Productivity from agricultural land and water usage has tripled. But in the coming years, the population is supposed to rise and the food production cannot keep pace with the growing population. The disappearance of forests, wetlands and other vital habitats will accelerate unless agriculture somehow becomes more productive and less taxing to the environment.

It seems certain that agricultural biotechnology will play a major role in resolving this dilemma. Biotechnology can be employed to improve the quality of seeds and instil in crops resistance to disease, insects and viruses and control extreme temperature. In addition, biotechnology can make foods healthier and more nutritious. Agriculturists should depend less on pesticides but improved environmental conditions.

In the past, new products were developed by exploiting natural materials. Antibiotics were derived from microbes, spices and perfumes from plants and pharmaceutical agents from plants and other organisms.

Today, the tools of biotechnology offer new ways to exploit these biological resources to the maximum benefit of society.

The quality of life on earth is linked directly to the overall quality of environment. Environmental biotechnology is not a new field. Composting and wastewater treatment technologies are familiar examples of old technologies. However, recent and more advanced research in these fields now offers opportunities with inclusion of organisms to make breakthroughs of existing problems.

Different types of organisms act as biological agents. Microorganisms, primarily bacteria and fungi are natures original recyclers. Their capability to transform natural and synthetic chemical into sources of energy and raw materials for their own growth suggests that expensive chemical or physical processes might be replaced with biological processes that are cheap in cost and more environmentally effective.

Bio Fertilizer for Agriculture:

• Bio fertilizers are carrier based microbial inoculants containing cells of specific micro organism mainly bacterium with ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen or by solubilising plant nutrient and render them available to crops
• Bio fertilizer is known to make a number of positive contributions in agriculture.
• Bio-fertilizer supplement fertilizer supplies for meeting the nutrient needs of the crop
• Bio-fertilizers improve the soil physical properties and soil health in general
• Bio-fertilizers fix the atmospheric nitrogen in the soil continuously on the root region of the crop.
• Phosphorus solubilising bacteria can solubilise or mobilize phosphorus in the soil
• Bio-fertilizers also release growth promoting substances and vitamins and help to maintain soil fertility
• Bio-fertilizers improves the soil physical properties and improve the soil humic acid status

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Early Biotechnological Practices

There are many important discoveries that have played big roles in the evolution of the biotechnology industry. Modern biochemistry and microbiology techniques utilize a number of molecular techniques that have developed in the past couple of decades as a result of the discovery of PCR, DNA fingerprinting, restriction enzymes, sequencing and cloning techniques. However, before we ever knew what a gene was, humans were manipulating cells in some very industrious ways, to produce foods, chemicals or improved crops. The list below outlines some of the more historical biotechnological techniques that laid the groundwork for this area of study, before the term "biotechnology" was ever used.

Fermentation to Produce Foods
Fermentation is perhaps the most ancient biotechnological discovery. Over 10,000 years ago mankind was producing wine, beer, vinegar and bread using microorganisms, primarily yeast. Yogurt was produced by lactic acid bacteria in milk and molds were used to produce cheese. These processes are still in use today for the production of modern foods. However, the cultures that are used have been purified and often genetically refined to maintain the most desirable traits and highest quality of products.

Industrial Fermentation
In 1897 the discovery that enzymes from yeast can convert sugar to alcohol lead to industrial processes for chemicals such as butanol, acetone and glycerol. Fermentation processes are still in use today in many modern biotech organizations, often for the production of enzymes to be used in pharmaceutical processes, environmental remediation and other industrial processes.

Food Preservation
Drying, salting and freezing foods to prevent spoilage by microorganisms were practiced long before anyone really understood why they worked or even fully knew what caused the food to spoil in the first place.

Quarantines
The practice of quarantining to prevent the spread of disease was in place long before the origins of disease were known. However, it demonstrates early acceptance that illness could be passed from an infected individual to another healthy individual, who would then begin to have symptoms of the disease.

Selective Plant Breeding
Crop improvement, by selecting seeds from the most successful or healthiest plants, to obtain a new crop having the most desirable traits, is a form of early crop technology. Farmers learned that using only the seeds from the best plants would eventually enhance and strengthen the desired traits in subsequent crops. In the mid-1860's, Gregor Mendel's studies on inheritable traits of peas improved our understanding of genetic inheritance and lead to practices of cross-breeding (now known as hybridization).

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Biotechnology in Everyday Life

This list contains some of products of enzyme biotechnology you might use everyday in your own home. In many cases, the commercial processes first exploited naturally occurring enzymes. However, this does not mean the enzyme(s) being used were as efficient as they could be. With time, research, and improved protein engineering methods, many enzymes have been genetically modified to be more effective at the desired temperatures, pH, or under other manufacturing conditions typically inhibitory to enzyme activity (eg. harsh chemicals), making them more suitable and efficient for industrial or home applications.

Stickies Removal
Enzymes are used by the pulp and paper industry for the removal of “stickies”, the glues, adhesives and coatings that are introduced to pulp during recycling of paper. Stickies are tacky, hydrophobic, pliable organic materials that not only reduce the quality of the final paper product, but can clog the paper mill machinery and cost hours of downtime. Chemcial methods for removal of stickies have, historically, not been 100% satisfactory.

Stickies are held together by ester bonds, and the use of esterase enzymes in pulp has vastly improved their removal. Esterases cut the stickies into smaller, more water soluble compounds, facilitating their removal from the pulp. Since the early half of this decade, esterases have become a common approach to stickies control. Their limitations are, being enzymes, they are typically only effective at moderate temperature and pH. Also, certain esterases might only be effective against certain types of esters and the presence of other chemicals in the pulp can inhibit their activity. The search is on for new enzymes, and genetic modifications of existing enzymes, to broaden their effective temperature and pH ranges, and substrate capabilities.

Detergents
Enzymes have been used in many kinds of detergents for over 30 years, since they were first introduced by Novozymes. Traditional use of enzymes in laundry detergents involved those that degrade proteins causing stains, such as those found in grass stains, red wine and soil. Lipases are another useful class of enzymes that can be used to dissolve fat stains and clean grease traps or other fat-based cleaning applications.

Currently, a popular area of research is the investigation of enzymes that can tolerate, or even have higher activities, in hot and cold temperatures. The search for thermotolerant and cryotolerant enzymes has spanned the globe. These enzymes are especially desirable for improving laundry processes in hot water cycles and/or at low temperatures for washing colors and darks. They are also useful for industrial processes where high temperatures are required, or for bioremediation under harsh conditions (eg. in the arctic). Recombinant enzymes (engineered proteins) are being sought using different DNA technologies such as site-directed mutagenesis and DNA shuffling.

Textiles
Enzymes are now widely used to prepare the fabrics that your clothing, furniture and other household items are made of. Increasing demands to reduce pollution caused by the textile industry has fueled biotechnological advances that have replaced harsh chemicals with enzymes in nearly all textile manufacturing processes. Enzymes are used to enhance the preparation of cotton for weaving, reduce impurities, minimize “pulls” in fabric, or as pre-treatment before dying to reduce rinsing time and improve colour quality. All of these steps not only make the process less toxic and eco-friendly, they reduce costs associated with the production process, and consumption of natural resources (water, electricity, fuels), while also improving the quality of the final textile product.

Foods and Beverages
This is the domestic application for enzyme technology that most people are already familiar with. Historically, humans have been using enzymes for centuries, in early biotechnological practices, to produce foods, without really knowing it. It was possible to make wine, beer, vinegar and cheeses, for example, because of the enzymes in the yeasts and bacteria that were utilized.

Biotechnology has made it possible to isolate and characterize the specific enzymes responsible for these processes. It has allowed the development of specialized strains for specific uses that improve the flavour and quality of each product. Enzymes can also be used to make the process cheaper and more predictable, so a quality product is ensured with every batch brewed. Other enzymes reduce the length of time required for aging, help clarify or stabilize the product, or help control alcohol and sugar contents.

For years, enzymes have also been used to turn starch into sugar. Corn and wheat syrups are used throughout the food industry as sweeteners. Using enzyme technology, the production of these sweeteners can be less expensive than using sugarcane sugar. Enzymes have been developed and enhanced using biotechnological methods, for every step of the process.

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