Stages of Biotechnology

• Ancient Biotechnology
• early history as related to food and shelter, including
domestication

• Classical Biotechnology
• built on ancient biotechnology
• fermentation promoted food production
• medicine

• Modern Biotechnology
• manipulates genetic information in organism
• genetic engineering
 Ancient Biotechnology
• Begins with early civilization
• Development in Agriculture and food production
• Few records exist
• Ancient carvings and sketches are sources of
information
 Classical Biotechnology
• Follows ancient biotechnology
• Makes wide spread use of methods from
ancient, especially fermentation
• Methods adapted to industrial production
• Produce large quantities of food products and
other materials in short time
• Meet demands of increasing population
• Many methods developed through classical
biotech are widely used today
 Modern Biotechnology
• Manipulation of genetic material within
organisms
• Based on genetics and the use of microscopy,
biochemical methods, related sciences and
technologies
• Often known as genetic engineering
 Ancient Biotechnology
• Not known when biotechnology began exactly
• Focused on having food and other human
needs
• Useful plants brought from the wild, planted
near caves where people lived
• As food was available, ability to store and
preserve emerged
• Food preservation most likely came from
unplanned events such as a fire or freeze
 Domestication
• 15,000 years ago, large animals were hard to capture
• People only had meat when they found a dead animal
• Came up with ways of capturing fish and small animals
• Food supplies often seasonal
• Winter food supplies may get quite low
• Domestication is seen by scientists as beginning of biotech
• Adaptation of organisms so they can be cultured
• Most likely began 11,000-12,000 years ago in the middle east
• Involved the collecting of seed from useful plants and growing
crude crops from that seed
• Involved the knowledge that the seed had to properly mature
 Domestication
• Proper planting
• Need for water, light and other conditions for plant growth
• Earliest plants likely grains and other seeds used for food
• Raising animals in captivity began about the same time in history
• Easier to have an animal close by that to hunt and capture a wild one
• Learned that animals need food and water
• Learned about simple breeding
• How to raise young
• Cattle, goats and sheep were the first domesticated food animals
• About 10,000 years ago, people had learned enough about plants
and animals to grow their own food
• The beginning of farming
 Food
• Domestication resulted in food supplies being
greater in certain times of the year
• Products were gathered and stored
• Some foods rotted
• Other changed form and continued to be good to
eat
• Foods stored in a cool cave did not spoil as quickly
• Foods heated by fire also did not spoil as quickly
• Immersing in sour liquids prevented food decay
 Food Preservation
• Using processes that prevent or slow spoilage
• Heating, cooling keeps microorganisms from
growing
• Stored in bags of leather or jars of clay
• Fermentation occurs if certain microorganisms
are present
• Creates an acid condition that slows or
prevents spoilage
 Cheese
• One of the first food products made through
biotechnology
• Began some 4,000 years ago
• Nomadic tribes in Asia
• Strains of bacteria were added to milk
• Caused acid to form
• Resulting in sour milk
• Enzyme called “rennet” was added
• Rennet comes from the lining of the stomachs of calves
• Rennet is genetically engineered today
 Yeast
• Species of fungi, some are useful and some
may cause diseases
• Long used in food preparation and
preservation
• Bread baking
• Yeast produces a gas in the dough causing the
dough to rise
 Fermentation
• Process in which yeast enzymes chemically
change compounds into alcohol
• Alcohol is converted to acetic acid by
additional microbe activity
 Fermenters
• Used to advance fermentation process
• Specially designed chamber that promotes
fermentation
• Allowed better control
• New products such as glycerol, acetone and
citric acid resulted
 Antibiotics
• A drug used to combat bacterial infections
• Use of fermentation speeded up the development of antibiotics
• Penicillin developed in the late 1920’s
• Introduced in the 1940’s
• Limitations in their use keep disease producing organisms from
developing immunity to antibiotics
• Use antibiotics only when needed
• Overuse may make the antibiotic ineffective when really needed
later
• Some disease organisms are now resistant to certain antibiotics
• Used in both human and veterinary medicine
 Modern Biotechnology
• Based on genetics research from the mid
1800’s
 Genetics
• Study of heredity
• Most work has focused on animal and plant
genetics
• Genes – determiners of heredity
 Genes
• Carry the genetic code
• Understanding genetic structure essential for
genetic engineering
 Heredity
• How traits are passed from parents to
offspring
• Members of the same species pass the
characteristics of that species
• Differences exist within each species.
• Differences are known as variability
 People in Biotechnology
Zacharias Janssen
• Discovered the principle of the compound
microscope in 1590
• Dutch eye glass maker
 Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
• Developed single lens microscope in 1670’s
• First to observe tiny organisms and document
observations
• Work led to modern microscopes
• Electron microscope developed in 1931 by
group of German scientists
 Gregor Mendel
• Formulated basic laws of heredity during mid
1800’s
• Austrian Botanist and monk
• Experimented with peas
• Studied inheritance of seven pairs of traits
• Bred and crossbred thousands of plants
• Determined that some traits were dominant and
other recessive
• Findings were published in 1866
 Johan Friedrich Miescher
• Swiss Biologist
• Isolated nuclei of white blood cells in 1869
• Led to identification of nucleic acid by Walter
Fleming
 Walter Sutton
• Determined in 1903 that chromosomes
carried units of heredity identified by Mendel
• Named “genes” in 1909 by Wilhelm
Johannsen, Danish Botanist
 Thomas Hunt Morgan
• Studied genetics of fruit flies
• Early 1900’s
• Experimented with eye color
• His work contributed to the knowledge of X
and Y chromosomes
• Nobel Peace Prize in 1933 for research in gene
theory
 Ernst Ruska
• German electrical engineer
• Build the first electron microscope in 1932
• Microscope offered 400X magnification
 Alexander Fleming
• Discovered penicillin in 1928
• First antibiotic drug used in treating human disease
• Observed growth of molds (Penicillium genus) in a dish
that also contracted bacteria
• Bacteria close to the molds were dead
• Extracting and purifying the molds took a decade of
research
• Penicillin first used in 1941
• Penicillin credited with saving many lives during WWII
when wounded soldiers developed infections.
 Rosalind Elsie Franklin
• Research in France and England in mid 1900’s
• Led to discovery of structure of DNA
• Set up X ray diffraction lab
• Photographs of DNA showed that it could have
a double helix structure
 Watson and Crick
• Collaborated to produce the first model of
DNA structure in 1953
• Described DNA dimensions and spacing of
base pairs
• Had major impact on genetic engineering
carried out today
 Norman E. Borlaug
• Developed wheat varieties producing high yields
• Research in Mexico
• Semi dwarf varieties
• Developed wheat variety that would grow in
climates where other varieties would not
• Nobel Peace Prize in 1971
• Credited with helping relieve widespread
hunger in some nations
 Mary Clare King
• Research into nature of DNA during late
1900’s
• Determined that 99% of human DNA is
identical to chimpanzee
• 1975 found similar gene pools between
humans and chimpanzee made it possible to
research hereditary causes of breast cancer
 Ian Wilmut
• Cloning of a sheep named Dolly in 1997
• Produced from tissue of an adult sheep
• Previous cloning efforts had been from early
embryos
 Biotechnology Timeline

1996 First mammal cloned from adult

cells

1990s First conviction using genetic

fingerprinting

1996 Development of Affymetrix

GeneChip

1997 First artificial chromosome