Biotechnology Flashcards

Flashcards for Biotechnology Lecture Review

Biotechnology

The use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products.

Synthetic Biology

Engineering biological systems to perform new functions, constructing or repurposing enzymes, and designing microbes to specifically target cancer cells.

Industrial Microbiology

Focuses on industrial and agricultural products, food additives, products for human and animal health, and biofuels.

Primary Metabolites

Related to synthesis of microbial cells in the exponential growth phase, including amino acids, nucleotides, fermentation end products, and enzymes.

Secondary Metabolites

Accumulate following active growth and have no direct relationship to synthesis of cell material and natural growth, including antibiotics and mycotoxins.

Streptomyces bacteria and filamentous fungi

Microorganisms that produce most antibiotics.

Classical methods of genetic exchange

Coupled with recombinant DNA technology, genomics and systems biology play vital role in industrial microbiology

Product yield in microorganisms

May be increased by modification of gene regulatory molecules allowing for overproduction of a product, production of more than one product by the same organism, or synthesis of modified products

Mutagenesis

Mutation can occur through chemical exposure, ultraviolet light, or transposon mutagenesis.

Heterologous Genes Expression

Functional genes cloned into different species for production of specific products without contamination of other substances.

Directed Evolution

Targeting of specific genes for mutation, metabolic engineering, SELEX, and high-throughput screening (HTS).

Metabolic Engineering

Genetic manipulation of enzymes with the goal of changing an industrially important product.

Regulatory Mutants

Typically used in amino acid production and have reduced ability to synthesize key intermediates or other amino acids.

Site Directed Mutagenesis

Insertion of chemically synthesized DNA to create small genetic changes used in protein engineering.

High-Throughput Screening (HTS)

Uses robotics and computers to enable the rapid selection of a single desirable mutant or molecule from tens of thousands of new constructed stains, molecules, or compounds.

Bioprospecting and Metagenomics

Exploring nature for new and potentially useful microbes and products by genomics.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Transfers Ti plasmid into plant cells genomes and cause cancer. Now Ti used as a vector for insertion of genes of interest for modification of crop plants

Biopesticides

Biological agents, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, or their components, which can be used to kill a susceptible insect.

Bacillus thuringiensis

parasporal body produced during sporulation as an intracellular protein toxin crystal. acts as microbial insecticide for specific groups of insects

Rhizobia

Inoculation of legume seeds with rhizobia ensures efficient nodulation and nitrogen fixation

Diatoms

Create precise 3D structures at the micron scale, which can be used to make optical, catalytic or electrical materials.

Biosensors

Living microbes, enzymes, or organelles linked to electrodes to detect specific substances by converting biological reactions into electrical currents.

Biofuel Production

Microbial energy conversion by microbial transformation of organic materials into biofuels for a viable alternative.

Ethanol Production

Can be produced from degradation of plant starches in corn by amylases and amyloglucosidases, followed by microbial fermentation of remaining sugars.

Hydrogen Gas

Has 3x more potential energy per unit weight than gasoline, making it the highest energy-content fuel available.

Fermentation

mass culture of microorganisms

Continuous Feed

Continual addition of a critical nutrient so that microbes will not have excess substrate available at any given time preventing production and accumulation of undesirable metabolic waste products

Vaccines

A critical weapon against infectious diseases to elicit a host immune response.

Reverse Vaccinology

mining of the pathogen genome sequence to assemble a list of possible good vaccine antigen targets