BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GENETIC ENGINEERING IN AGRICULTURE

A SCIENTIFIC PAPER PRESENTED TO THE MAHONRI ACADEMY AND

SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR HIGHSCHOOL DEPARTMENT

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

REQUIREMNT OF THE SUBJECT GENERAL BIOLOGY 2

BY AURINO, JERIC LOUIS B.

 MAHONRI ACADEMY AND SCIENCE HIGH

SCHOOL

SCIENTIFIC PAPER

BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GENETIC ENGINEERING IN AGRICULTURE

I. Introduction

Nowadays, every one of us is so dependent on technology. It is big help

for us to improve not only ourselves, but also our environment and

surroundings. Technologies help us in many ways like, it can help us to cure

or reduce the aggravation of our disease. In our biological system, technology

assists our organs to function properly in order to prevent our organs to

malfunction. So, biological system is group of organs that are working

together in their specific task (Biological Systems: Open Access, 2018). With

the help of technology, it also use in agriculture to enhance plants, animal, and

microorganisms or so called, biotechnology. Biotechnology is use to help the

other plants make more nutritious to eat and enable to have a healthy living

animals. And modern biotechnology is responsible for us to provide products

that will weaken the diseases, food that will make us satisfied and healthy and

more efficient industrial manufacturing processes (Biotechnology Innovation

Organization).

Biotechnology has a vital role in a community in which it helps to improve the

food quality, quantity and processing. In other words, biotechnology can

produce new products from different materials or chemicals that will discover

new things. Examples of the former include the production of gasoline from

ethanol which in turn is produced from sugar; the production of insulin using

recombinant DNA technology; the production of hepatitis B vaccine using

recombinant DNA technology and the extraction of copper using mineral

leaching bacteria (The Importance of Biotechnology in Today’s Time, 2005).

In other words, biotechnology is very important in our life because it

contributes to make new products that will make our life better.

The genetic engineering is the process of manipulating the DNA sequence

to create new one. It is also defined that the genetic engineering is a set of

technologies that are used to change the genetic makeup of cells and move the

genes from one species to another in order to produce new organisms. There

are techniques are used that are highly sophisticated manipulations genetic

material and other biologically important chemicals (Shandilya, 2018). The

genetic engineering is important in our life especially it is use in different

fields. In medicine genetic engineering has been used to mass-produce insulin,

human growth hormones, follistim (for treating infertility), human albumin,

monoclonal antibodies, antihemophilic factors, vaccines and many other

drugs.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other

desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of

 domesticated animals (livestock). So, the agriculture is also known as

“farming”, while scientist, inventors and others are dedicated in improving

farming methods to produce enough food for humans and animal feeds.

Agriculture is very important especially in economic development of a

country because it provides food and raw material to non-agricultural sectors

of the economy in which is used to improve their devices and it creates

demand for goods produced in non-agricultural sectors (Macatta, 2016).

Biotechnology and genetic engineering plays a vital role in agriculture

because just like the previous description, it needs materials or products that

are suited in different fields of agriculture for the betterment of the economy.

The itinerary showed the Science, Technology, Engineering, and

Mathematics (STEM) Senior High School students of Mahonri Academy and

Science High School grew their knowledge about the different application of

biotechnology and genetic engineering to the agriculture. Furthermore, the

Senior High School students of Mahonri Academy and Science High School

learned about the essence of using biotechnology and also genetic engineering

in agriculture.

II. Objectives

At the end of this activity, the students must be able to:

1. Identify principles and processes of biotechnology and genetic engineering

which can be used in the agriculture sector; and

 2. Describe how biotechnology and genetic engineering have affected the

resilience of the country to climate change; and

3. Determine the possible impacts of using genetically-modified crops to the

environment.

III. Methodology

1. The class visited different sites within the UPLB-IRRI area. Itinerary

included the following: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Rice

Museum, UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding, UPLB Museum of Natural

History, and Botanical Gardens.

2. The IRRI Rice Museum and the UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding showed

the class applications of principles of biotechnology and genetic

engineering to crop resilience.

A. IRRI Rice Museum

1. Identify rice varieties which exhibit crop resilience (Table 1).

2. Determine the benefits of using different varieties of rice developed by

IRRI.

B. UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB)

1. Identify different crops developed using plant breeding techniques and

technology (Table 2).

2. Determine the advantages of using these crops when it comes to resilience

to climate change.
 IV. Results

Table 1

Rice varieties developed by IRRI

Rice Variety Resilience Trait

1. Rc 216 (Tubigan 17) Insecticides

2. Rc 160 Low amylose content

3. Rc 300 (Tubigan 24) Brown planthoppers

4. Rc 222 (Tubigan 18) Brown planthoppers, green leafhoppers and

stem borersnaka

5. Rc 360 (Tubigan 31) Resistant reaction to Stemborer

Table 2

Crops developed by the UPLB-IPB

Crop Plant Breeding Process Description

Technique
Used
1. Lettuce Hydroponics Hydroponics is a way of growing plants that can
be done at your home or at your apartment
without soil by using a nutrient medium.
2. IPB Var 6 Mass Selection/ Mass selections is the common method wherein is
Open Pollination has a large number of plants of similar phenotype
are selected and their seeds are harvested and
mixed together to create new variety
V. Discussion

There are chemicals that will help the farmers to raise their products.

According to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, that there are groups

of farmers claims growing increasingly their Genetically Engineered (GE)

crops because of drastically rising biotech seed prices and increasingly

resistant weeds. Farmers also choose biotech crops because their yield is

increasing and lower production costs. And because of that, the farmers are

getting greater financial return and they are using more environmentally

friendly farming practices through the use of agricultural biotechnology in

which genetic engineering help to improve the control of pest insects, plant

pathogens, and weeds. These types of products in agriculture will help the

farmers to develop their crops and it provides nutrition for human health.

Genetically-modified (GM) crops offer improved yields, enhanced

nutritional value, longer shelf life, and resistance to drought, frost, or insect

pests. So, GM crops has a big help to the farmers because it will improve their

crops to become more nutritious that will help also other people to use this in

order to enhanced more the agriculture. Some examples of GM crops include

corn varieties that contains gene for a bacterial pesticide that kills larval pests.

The GM crops created in a plant breeder that is trying to exchange genes

between two plants to produce offspring that have desired traits. And this is

done by transferring the male (pollen) of one plant to the female organ of

another through the use of GM technology.

 There are possible impacts of applying the biotechnology in crop breeding

wherein it is considered to be more efficient and quicker than other breeding

techniques in the development of new and more resilient crop varieties.

According to study of Nasee, Pray, Hock and Hossain (2003) entitled Impact

of Biotechnology on Plant Breeding, the another use of biotechnology is a

trait that has been linked to a genotype, or crop lines can be selected for

desired traits without having a actually grow them and look for the expression

of a desired trait through the use of Marker Aided Selection (MAS). The

advancement of climate resilient varieties at quicker rate is the need of the day

which must be created through the proficient utilization of currently available

biotechnological tools and techniques in a progressively exact way in contrast

with conventional breeding which frequently takes substantially more time.

Firstly, poisonous quality is a tremendous issue surrounding chemical

pesticides and herbicides, utilized usually with GMOs, in addition the toxicity

natural to these plants. GMOs might be harmful to non-target organisms,

honey bees and butterflies being the most discussed models at present. Bees

are hugely important in the fertilization of numerous food crops, yet are

unfortunately imperiled modern agricultural techniques, such as GM crops.

Monarch butterflies are explicitly in danger from GMO maize plants. In

addition to bees and butterflies, birds are also in danger from pesticides, and

work as biological control agents and pollinators, once more, similar to bees.
VI. Conclusion

To conclude, biotechnology and genetic engineering plays a vital role in a

community wherein it improves different fields especially in medicine,

agriculture, and etc. It also provides new product that will be used by other

people in order to supply their needs. Without biotechnology and genetic

engineering, our life might be harmful because biotechnology and genetic

engineering help us to prevent to any harmful diseases.

VII. References

NSIC releases nine new PhilRice-bred varieties. (2018, April 18). Retrieved

from https://www.philrice.gov.ph/nsic-releases-nine-new-philrice-bred-

varieties/

What is biotechnology? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/biotechnologyhttps://www.agexplorer.

com/focus/biotechnology-systems

What is Biotechnology? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bio.org/what-

biotechnologyhttps://www.omicsonline.org/biological-systems-open-

access.php

The Importance of Biotechnology in Today's Time. (2014, March 13).

Retrieved from https://raunakms.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/the-importance-

of-biotechnology-in-todays-time/http://www.clas.wayne.edu/Biology/Why-

Study-Biotechnology---Biological-Sciences
Patra, & Andrew, A. A. (2001, November 30). Human, Social, and

Environmental Impacts of Human Genetic Engineering. Retrieved from

http://www.jbiomeds.com/biomedical-sciences/human-social-and-

environmental-impacts-of-human-genetic-engineering.php?aid=7264

Shandilya, A. (2018, January 19). Benefits of Genetic Engineering. Retrieved

from https://biologywise.com/benefits-of-genetic-engineering

The Importance of Genetic Engineering (286 Words). (2013, December 10).

Retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/engineering/the-

importance-of-genetic-engineering-286-words/5690

Asis Datta. (2013, November 01). Genetic engineering for improving quality

and productivity of crops. Retrieved from

https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2048-

7010-2-15

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://fas.org/biosecurity/education/dualuse-

agriculture/2.-agricultural-biotechnology/genetically-engineered-crops.html

Hock, C., Naseem, A., Hossain, F., & Pray, C. (2003, January). Impact of

Biotechnology on Plant Breeding. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23505168_Impact_of_Biotechnolog

y_on_Plant_Breeding