Biotechnology pertains to any technology that employs biological materials or processes in order to generate or construct a desired or expected product. Genetic engineering is a category of biotechnology that uses techniques to alter the genetic information of a biological entity. One of the most revolutionary products of biotechnology are the genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), which are genetically designed organisms that carry a modified genetic makeup made up of selected genes that significant to agriculture and the economy. The selective integration of specific gene segments that confer a specific hybrid is known as recombinant DNA technology.
In order to generate genetically modified organisms, specific genes from different organisms that are of interest are excised from the genome through the use of restriction enzymes that cut the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at specific sequences. These fragments of DNA that were excised are then ligated to each other resulting in a recombinant DNA segment or chimaera. For example, genetically modified corn may be designed to be resistant to pesticides because the gene-specific for pesticide resistance was incorporated into the corn genome. A generally protocol for such cloning involves bacterial cultures that contain small genomes called plasmids. These plasmids are easily extracted from bacterial cells and can be manipulated to introduce a gene of specific interest using simple restriction enzymes such as HindIII or EcoRI and re-inserted into the bacteria for further propagation. The restriction enzyme HindIII originated from Haemophilus influenzae, while EcoRI was extracted from the bacteria Escherichia coli. Further testing of the recombinant bacterial cultures may be performed to verify if these indeed contain the gene of interest that was introduced. Testing may be performed using protein extraction and purification methods such as sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) which separates proteins across an electric gradient according to their molecular weight in kilodaltons (kd). Proteins are usually extracted from bacterial cells through lysis of the bacterial cell wall using high-salt, high-detergent solutions and centrifugation which is a method of pulling down specific organelles based on their sedimentation coefficient. Another way of checking whether a specific protein has been produced is through Western blot, which is a form of hybridization using nylon filters and antibodies that specifically associate with the protein of interest, based on the epitope sequences present in the antigen-binding sites of the antibody.
Biotechnology has also improved methods in animal husbandry, wherein specific lines at livestock are selected for further breeding through artificial insemination, together with the incorporation of positive genetic traits that have been pre-screened for genetic markers, or specific DNA sequences that would facilitate identification of species, varieties or subtypes in an organism. The benefits of biotechnology and genetic engineering personally benefit us because the products or results of such efforts are currently circulating around us. The cereal we eat every morning is the product of improving plant breeding of wheat and oats, as they have been genetically altered to tolerate drought, as well as to grow faster than the wild-type wheat and oat plants. The milk we use in our cereal may have come from cows that have been inoculated with biotechnologically produced growth hormones for faster growth and maturation of cattle, in order to have more milk produced at a faster rate. Several multinational companies such as Monsanto have long been aggressively working for the production of genetically modified crops and animals, all of which are aimed to provide better options for the growing consumer world.