Do you know what biotechnology is?Surely you heard something about it. This is an important section of modern biology. It became, like physics, one of the main priorities in the world economy and science at the end of the 20th century. Half a century ago, no one knew what biotechnology is. However, it was laid by the scientist, who lived in the 19th century. Biotechnology has received a powerful impetus to development through the work of Louis Pasteur, a researcher from France (years of life - 1822-1895). He is the founder of modern immunology and microbiology.
In the 20th century, genetics andmolecular biology using the achievements of physics and chemistry. At this time, the most important direction was the development of methods by which it would be possible to cultivate animal and plant cells.
In the 1980s there was a surge in researchbiotechnology. By this time, new methodological and methodological approaches were created that ensured the transition to the use of biotechnologies in science and practice. Now it is possible to extract from this a great economic effect. According to forecasts, biotechnological products should have already reached a quarter of the world production at the beginning of a new century.
The active development of biotechnology occurred in thistime and in our country. Russia has also achieved a significant expansion of work in this area and the introduction into production of their results in the 1980s. In our country, during this period, the first national biotechnology program was developed and implemented. Special interdepartmental centers were created, biotechnologists were trained, departments were founded and laboratories in universities and research institutions were formed.
Today we are so used to this word thatfew people ask themselves the question: "What is biotechnology?" Meanwhile, to get to know her in more detail would be far from superfluous. Current processes in this area are based on the use of recombinant DNA and immobilized enzymes, cell organelles or cells. Modern biotechnology is the science of cellular and genetic engineering technologies and methods of creating and applying transformed genetically biological objects with the aim of intensifying the production or creating new types of products. There are three main areas, which we now tell.
In this direction can be identified asa kind of red biotechnology (medicine). It is considered the most important application of biotechnology. They play an increasing role in the development of medicines (in particular, for the treatment of cancer). Biotechnology is also of great importance in the diagnosis. They are used, for example, when creating biosensors, DNA chips. In Austria, red biotechnology today enjoys well-deserved recognition. It is even considered the engine of the development of other industries.
We turn to the next type of industrialbiotechnology. This is biotechnology green. It is used when breeding is carried out. This biotechnology provides today special methods by which countermeasures against herbicides, viruses, fungi, and insects are developed. All this is also very important, agree.
For the field of green biotechnology special importancehas genetic engineering. With the help of it, prerequisites are created for transferring the genes of one plant species to another, and thus scientists can influence the development of stable characteristics and properties.
Gray biotechnology is used for environmental protection. Its methods are used for sewage treatment, soil sanitation, gas and exhaust air purification, for waste treatment.
Но и это еще не все.There is also white biotechnology, which covers the scope of use in the chemical industry. In this case, biotechnological methods are used for environmentally safe and efficient production of enzymes, antibiotics, amino acids, vitamins, and alcohol.
И наконец, последняя разновидность.Blue biotechnology is based on the technical application of various organisms, as well as processes of marine biology. In this case, the focus of research - biological organisms that inhabit the oceans.
Moving on to the next direction - cell engineering.
She is engaged in obtaining hybridscloning, studying cellular mechanisms, "hybrid" cells, drawing up genetic maps. The beginning of it refers to the 1960s, when the method of hybridization of somatic cells appeared. Methods of cultivation have already been improved by this time, methods of growing fabrics have also emerged. Somatic hybridization, in which hybrids are created without the participation of the sexual process, is carried out today by cultivating different cells of lines of the same species or using cells of different species.
Hybridomas, i.e. hybrids between lymphocytes(normal cells of the immune system) and tumor, have the properties of the cell lines of the parents. They are capable, like cancer, to divide indefinitely on nutrient artificial media (that is, are "immortal"), and they can, like lymphocytes, produce homogeneous (monoclonal) antibodies that have a certain specificity. These antibodies are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, as sensitive reagents for organic substances, etc.
Another direction of cell engineeringare manipulations with cells that do not have nuclei, with free nuclei, as well as with other fragments. These manipulations are reduced to combining parts of the cell. Similar experiments together with microinjections of dyes or chromosomes into a cell are carried out to find out how the cytoplasm and the nucleus influence each other, what factors regulate the activity of certain genes, and so on.
Using the compound in the early stages of developmentcells of various embryos are grown by so-called mosaic animals. Otherwise they are called chimeras. They consist of 2 types of cells that differ in genotypes. By these experiments, they find out how the differentiation of tissues and cells takes place during the development of the organism.
Modern biotechnology is unthinkable withoutcloning. Experiments connected with the transplantation of the nuclei of various somatic cells into enucleated (that is, devoid of the nucleus) eggs of animals with further growing into the adult organism of the resulting embryo have been going on for more than a decade. However, they have become very widely known since the end of the 20th century. Today we call such experiments cloning of animals.
Very few people do not know Dolly the sheep today.In 1996, the first cloning of a mammal, which was carried out from a cage of an adult organism, was carried out in Edinburgh, Scotland, near Rosin Institute It was Dolly the sheep that became the first such clone.
Появившись в начале 1970 годов, генная инженерия Today has achieved significant success. Her methods transform mammalian cells, yeast, bacteria into real "factories" for the production of any protein. Such an achievement of science provides an opportunity to study in detail the functions and structure of proteins in order to use them as medicines.
The basics of biotechnology today are widely used.E. coli, for example, has become in our time a supplier of important hormones somatotropin and insulin. Applied genetic engineering aims to design recombinant DNA molecules. When introduced into a specific genetic apparatus, they can give the body beneficial properties for humans. For example, you can get "biological reactors", that is, animals, plants and microorganisms, which would produce substances pharmacologically important to humans. The achievements of biotechnology have led to the possibility of breeding animal breeds and plant varieties with signs valuable to people. Using genetic engineering techniques, genetic certification can be made, DNA vaccines can be created, various genetic diseases can be diagnosed, etc.
So, we answered the question:"What is biotechnology?" Of course, the article provides only basic information about it, briefly lists directions. This fact sheet provides an overview of what modern biotechnologies are and how they are used.
