Biotechnology Midterm

Biotechnology

Using knowledge of cells to modify their activities to make
living organisms more effective in serving people

Bioprocess technology

historically, the most important area of biotechnology (brewing, antibiotics, mammalian cell culture, etc.), extensive development in progress with new products envisaged (polysaccharides, medically important drugs, solvents, protein-enhanced foods)

Enzyme technology

Used for the catalysis of extremely specific chemical reactions; immobilization of enzymes; to create specific molecular convertors (bioreactors)

Waste technology

long historical importance but more emphasis is now being placed on coupling these processes with the conservation and recycling of resources; foods and fertilizers, biological fuels

Environmental technology

great scope exists for the application of biotechnological concepts for solving many environmental problems (pollution control, removing toxic wastes); recovery of metals from mining wastes and low-grade ores

Bioremediation

The process that uses living organisms, like bacteria, fungi, or plants, to remove or neutralize contaminants from polluted environments such as soil or water

Renewable resources technology

the use of renewable energy sources, in particular lignocellulose, to generate new sources of chemical raw materials and energy—ethanol, methane, and hydrogen

Plant and animal agriculture

genetically engineered plants to improve nutrition, disease resistance, maintain quality, and improve yields and stress tolerance will become increasingly commercially available

Healthcare

new drugs and better treatment for delivering medicine to diseased parts

White Biotechnology

energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission, and renewable raw materials

Green Biotechnology

Agriculture and Transgenic Organisms

Red Biotechnology

healthcare

Opportunities for human development

tailored treatments based on individual genetic makeup, producing sustainable energy alternatives from biomass, protecting endangered species and ecosystems

Social-ethical apprehensions

Concerns about the unequal distribution of biotechnology benefits, with wealthier countries and individuals having greater access

Traditional Biotechnology

refers to the conventional techniques that have been used for many centuries to produce beer, wine, cheese, and many other foods

New Biotechnology

embraces all methods of genetic modification by recombinant DNA and cell fusion techniques together with the modern developments of ‘traditional’ biotechnological processes

Industrial Biotechnology

focuses on using living cells and cellular materials to create biofuels, bioplastics, enzymes, and other sustainable products, enhancing efficiency and reducing environmental impact in manufacturing processes

Environmental Biotechnology

focuses on the development of sustainable solutions for pollution control, waste management, and the restoration of ecosystems

Agricultural Biotechnology

focuses on enhancing crop yields, improving resistance to pests and diseases, and increasing nutritional value through genetic modification and other biotechnological methods

Food Biotechnology

aims to enhance traits such as resistance to pests, nutritional value, and shelf life, addressing global food security challenges

Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

focuses on the application of biological systems to create pharmaceuticals, vaccines, diagnostics, and therapies

beer, bread, wine, cheese, and mushrooms

the first biotechnological products produced

Ancient Biotechnology

humans were dependent on the distribution of edible plants and migratory habits of animals

Paleolithic Age

people lived in mobile camps, hunted wild animals, collected wild plants

Selective Breeding Biotechnology

involves choosing specific organisms with desirable traits to reproduce, enhancing certain characteristics in future generations

Domestication of Animals

involves selective breeding for traits desirable for agriculture, companionship, or work

Germplasm

collection of seeds (for plants) with the most desirable/ superior traits

nomadic to sedentary

probably due to increased population, increased demand for food, dwindling supply of migratory animals, and climate change

Fermentation

converts sugar to acids, gases, or alcohol using microorganisms such as yeast or bacteria

Baker’s Yeast

a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Antibiotics

Europe in the Middle Ages used molded bread in healing wounds

Penicillin

used to treat bacterial infections

Zacharias Janssen

Invented the first compound microscope and enabled scientists to look through a lens to discover and explore the microscopic world

discovery of the cell

Robert Hooke: First to coin the term "cell" after observing cork under a microscope. He saw tiny, room-like structures and called them "cells."

Robert Hooke

coined the term “cell” from “cellulae”

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek

coined the term “animalcules” which mean small animals

Vitalism

whole organism, not individual parts, possess life

Cell Theory

All living organisms are composed of one or more cells. The cell is the structural unit of life. All cells arise from pre-existing cells. The cell has a dual existence as a distinct entity and a building block in the construction of organisms.

Matthias Schleiden

said that plants are made of cells

Theodor Schwann

said that animals are made of cells

Rudolf Virchow

said that the cell is the basic unit of life. All cells arise from cells.

Theory of Spontaneous Generation

Life generates itself from non-living matter. Soil, mud, dust, and rocks turn into frogs, worms, salamanders, etc.

Francesco Redi

theorized that maggots spontaneously arise from spoiled meat

Louis Pasteur

opposed and dispelled spontaneous generation

Swan Neck Flask Experiment

After boiling broth in the flask, no microbial growth occurred, supporting the idea of biogenesis.

Electron microscopy

400x magnification was available

Ultracentrifugation

separates particles by density, shape, and size which helped scientists further develop, improve, and make advancements in other areas ex. ribosomes

Centrifuge

device for separating particles from a solution according to their size, shape, density, viscosity of the medium and rotor speed which elucidated cellular structure and function

Ribosomes

measured in Svedberg units, site of protein synthesis

Gregor Mendel

proposed the basic principles of heredity

Mendelian Genetics

Each parent pea plant contributed to its progeny one unit of heredity for each trait (either recessive or dominant form)

Friedrich Meischer

isolated and identified nucleins (presently known as nucleic acids), did not know that nuclein contain hereditary material, decided to isolate nuclein from the sperm cells of a salmon, and was able to extract pure nuclein

Walther Flemming

described threadlike bodies present during cell division and equally distributed to daughter cells which are chromosomes

Walter Sutton

proposed that genes are carriers of units of heredity and meiosis is a type of cell division where gametes produced receive only one chromosome of each morphological type

Wilhelm Johanssen

coined the terms gene, phenotype, and genotype

Frederick Griffith

proved that DNA contains the genetic material through the process of transformation by genetic alteration of the cell by direct uptake and incorporation of extracellular material, helped better understand the chemical nature of the gene, used 2 strains (denoted S and R) of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumonia)

S Strain and R Strain Experiment by Frederick Griffith

demonstrated the process of transformation in bacteria because when the R strain was mixed with the heat-killed S strain, the R strain transformed into the virulent form

Oswald Avery, Colin Macleod, and Maclyn Maccarty

Elucidated the transformation principle

Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase

Determined once and for all that DNA is the genetic material, used T2 bacteriophage (virus that infects bacteria), tagged with radioactive elements

James Watson and Francis Crick

described the structure of DNA

Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins

described the X-ray diffraction patterns

Erwin Chargaff

described the 1:1 DNA base ratio

Oparin-Haldane Hypothesis

- independently proposed that life originatedon earth after an inconceivably long periodof "abiogenic molecular evolution"
- Proposed that earth's primitive atmosphere consistedof simple compounds such as water, molecularhydrogen, methane, and ammonia but lacked oxygengas (O2, also called "molecular oxygen")

Stanley Miller and Harold Urey

- Demonstrated the plausibility of the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis by simple but ingenious experiments
- Demonstrated chemical evolution

Prokaryotic Cells

small cells (<5um), always unicellular, no organelles present, nucleoid, circular DNA, 70S ribosomes, binary fission (always asexual), bigger surface-to-volume ratio

Why are Cells so small?

small cells have more surface relative to cell volume than do larger cells: higher surface-to-volume ratio

Gram positive cell wall

-thick peptidoglycan layer
-teichoic acids and lipoteichoic acids

Gram negative cell wall

thin sheet of peptidoglycan, 1 - 3 nm thick.
Somewhat rigid structure
Thinness gives gram-negative bacteria greater flexibility and sensitivity to lysis

Cell wall-less bacteria

Mycoplasma
- Protects itself by living in an osmotically-stable habitat
- Cell membrane contains sterols(rigidity)

Archaea cell wall

- no peptidoglycan
- either gram + or gram -

Cytoplasmic Membrane

the permeability barrier of the cell, separating the cytoplasm from the environment

prokaryotic cell parts

glycocalyx, cell wall, cell membrane, flagella, fimbriae, pilus, nucleoid, ribosome, inclusion bodies, endospore

Inclusion Bodies

- Poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid(PHB) & Glycogen
- carbon storage

nuclear region (nucleoid)

chromosome that is the central location of DNA, RNA, and some proteins in bacteria; not a true nucleus

Endospores

thick-walled protective spore that forms inside a bacterial cell and resists harsh conditions

Glycocalyx

- capsule
- slime layer
- Inhibits phagocytosis
- Increased pathogenicity by adherence
- Increased motility

Flagella

- long, whip-like filament that helps in cell motility.
- Many bacteria are flagellated, and sperm are flagellated.

Fimbriae

finger or fringe like projections at the end of the fallopian tubes

Pili (pilus)

appendages that allow bacteria to attach to each other and to transfer DNA

Carbohydrates

the starches and sugars present in foods (includes sugars, glycogen, starches, and cellulose) that function mainly as a source of chemical energy for generating ATP needed to drive metabolic reactions

Lipids (fatty acids)

insoluble in water and provide long term energy storage and may include many natural oils, waxes, and steroids, most are insoluble in polar solvents such as water

Lipoproteins

lipid-protein complexes that are formed so that lipids can become more soluble in blood plasma

Lipids: Triglycerides

- The most plentiful lipids in the body and in your diet
- A single glycerol molecule
- three fatty acid molecules
- A fat is a triglyceride that is a solid at room temperature

Fatty Acids in Health and Disease

- a group of fatty acids called essential fatty acids(EFAs) are essential to human health, cannot be made by the body, and therefore must obtained from foods/supplements
- Omega 3 fatty acids (fatty fish, flaxseed, fish oil, walnuts)
- Omega 6 fatty acids (cereal, bread, white rice, eggs, baked goods, meats, liver)

Proteins

- made up or carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen + nitrogen
- determinants of an organisms’ characteristics
- forms when amino acids are linked in a chain
- central C, H attached, and varying R groups (chemicals)

amino acids

Organic compounds that serve as the building blocks of proteins, composed of an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a unique side chain (R group).

Primary structure

unique sequence of amino acids that are linked by covalent peptide bonds to form a polypeptide chain

Secondary structure

the repeated twisting or folding of neighboring amino acids in the polypeptide chain Alpha-helices and beta-sheets

Tertiary structure

the three-dimensional shape of a polypeptide chain

Quaternary structure

the arrangement of the individual polypeptide chains relative to one another

Nucleic Acids

genetic information with 2 types: DNA (letter) and RNA (mailman)

Eukaryotic cells

larger cells (>10um), multicellular, membrane-bound organelles, nucleus, linear DNA, 80S ribosomes, mitosis or meiosis (sexual or asexual), smaller surface-to-volume ratio

Cell Wall

rigid layer of nonliving material that surrounds the cells of plants and some other organisms

Internal Structure of Eukaryotic Cells

- More complex
- Highly organized
- Numerous organelles

Cytoskeleton

network of fibers that holds the cell together, helps the cell to keep its shape, and aids in movement

Nuclear Membrane

controls what goes in and out of the nucleus

Nucleoplasm

viscous fluid enclosed by the nuclear envelope

Nucleolus

produces ribosomes

Chromatins

- makes up chromosomes
- a complex of proteins and DNA

Mitochondria

organelle that is the site of ATP (energy) production