Transcript Biotechnology

Biotechnology
• Biotechnology is the manipulation of living things
to make useful products
– Causes changes in an organism
• Examples of genetic biotechnology
– Selective Breeding
– Genetic Engineering
• Gene Therapy
Selective Breeding
• Selective Breeding is an intentional
mating of organisms to produce
offspring with specific traits
– Two types:
• Pure bred
• Hybrid
Selective Breeding: pure bred
• Pure breeding
– Crossing two individuals that have identical
or similar sets of alleles.
• Example: breeding only fast horses,
breeding only labs
– Con – decreases genetic variety therefore
makes it harder to adapt, resist diseases,
and higher chance of genetic disorders
Selective Breeding: hybrid
• Hybridization
– Crossing two genetically different individuals. The
Hybrid organism is bred to have the best traits
from both parents.
• Example: Labradoodles, corn produces lots of
kernels with one resistant to disease
– Con – doesn’t always turn out the planned way &
is time consuming
• Can not easily predict whether the dominant or
recessive trait will appear
Thad Cochran National Warm-water
Aquaculture Center
• Diseases in catfish farming are prevalent and
costly, particularly the bacterial disease Enteric
Septicemia of Catfish.
• The Aquatic Center uses selective breeding in a
multi-trait process to increase the natural disease
resistance of the fish through selective breeding.
Genetic Engineering
• Genetic engineering changes the genetic material of
a living organism by removing genes from one
organism then transferring them into the DNA of
another organism. (gene splicing)
• Uses:
– Make medication and treat diseases
– cure human genetic disorders
– Improve crops
• Bacteria were the first success with genetic
engineering because they are one celled and not as
complex.
• Ex. Insert bacteria DNA into rice, wheat, and
tomatoes to enable plants to survive in colder temps,
poor soil conditions, and resist insect pests.
Genetic Engineering
• Scientists use genetic engineering to
create bacterial cells that produce
important human proteins such as
insulin.
Gene Therapy
• Gene therapy is an experimental technique that
uses genes to treat or prevent disease by
inserting working copies of a gene directly into the
cells of a person with a genetic disorder
• Researchers are testing several approaches to
gene therapy, including:
– Replacing a mutated gene that causes disease with a
healthy copy of the gene.
– Inactivating, or “knocking out,” a mutated gene that is
functioning improperly.
– Introducing a new gene into the body to help fight a
disease.
• Several studies have already shown that this
approach can have very serious health risks, such
as toxicity, inflammation, and cancer.
Gene Therapy Examples
• People with CF don’t produce the protein to control
mucus production. Both genes are defected
(recessive). Scientist insert working copies of gene
into harmless viruses. The engineered viruses can
be sprayed into the lungs of the patients.
• Gene therapy works in hemophilia by using DNA as
the drug and viruses as the deliverer. A virus
containing the gene that produces Factor VIII or
Factor IV is injected into a large group of cells in the
patient. The hope of the gene therapy is to have the
cell produce more of the cured cells and spread
throughout the rest of the body..
Animal Functional Genomics Lab
• Located at Mississippi State University
• Deals with Bovine (Cow)
• Animal Biotechnology - Our laboratory’s
research interests include efficient production of
genetically enhanced livestock and animals for
biomedical studies.
• They selectively breed bovine that exhibit good
traits such as higher milk production, resistance to
diseases, better tasting milk, etc.
– Example: Cattle type 1 doesn’t get sick from a certain
infection. Cattle type 2 does. They will no longer breed
Cattle type 2. They will select to only breed cattle type
1 to produce offspring.
Animal Functional Genomics Lab
• They also explore the secrets of animal genomes
to determine genes involved in important
phenotypes in reproduction and growth.
– map the genome of bovine to located certain genes
that control desirable traits.
– hopes to genetically engineer, better offspring by
changing the DNA not just selecting better parents.
Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Co.
• Located in Stoneville, MS
• Deals with plants
• Soybeans, corn and cotton have been genetically
engineered to provide herbicide tolerance, insect
resistance or both are widely grown in the United
States and several other countries
– That technique does not involve altering crops by putting in
foreign genes. Rather it uses genetic tests to help choose
which plants to use in conventional cross-breeding, vastly
speeding up the process.
Bullmastiff
Big, strong & good companion
(not aggressive or fast)
Aggressive & fast (not big & strong)
When selective breeding
these 2 dogs, we get a
Bullmastiff
Large, quick, strong & aggressive dog
Example of Selective Breeding in
Cattle
Brahman cattle: good resistance to
heat, but poor meat
English shorthorn cattle: good beef, but poor
heat resistance
When selecting to breed
these 2 animals we get a
Santa Gertrudis cattle
Result = good beef AND
resistant to heat
Selective Breeding in Crops
How did the liger appear?
► If
the father is a lion & the mother is a tiger,
the offspring are known as ligers and the
pairing results in gigantism
Strong but lacks speed
Fast but not
as strong
Ligers are fast & strong
& twice as big as parent
Genetically Engineered Fish
► We
have inserted genes into fish to make
them grow twice as big and twice as fast
Genetically Engineered Chickens
► We
have inserted genes into chickens to
make them grow twice as big and twice as
fast. They are so big they can’t walk.
Genetically engineered crops
► Humans
have injected genes into crops to
make them grow in colder environments
► Humans have injected genes into crops to
make them grow in dry (drought)
environments
Genetically Engineered Pigs
► Humans
inject genes into pigs’ DNA in order
for the pig to grow human-like organs, so
people can transplant these organs into
people who need them
Genetically Engineered Mice
► Humans
inject genes into mice to make the
mice grow human ears for cosmetic
purposes