Chapter 12 Biotechnology And Its Applications
- Biotechnology has given to humans several useful products by using microbes, plant, animals and their metabolic machinery.
- Genetically modified plants have been useful in increasing crop yields, reduce post-harvest losses and make crops more tolerant of stresses. There are several genetically modified crop plants with improved nutritional value of foods and reduced the reliance on chemical pesticides (pest resistant crops).
- Recombinant DNA technological processes have made immense impact in the area of healthcare by enabling mass production of safe and more effective therapeutics.
- Transgenic animals are also used to understand how genes contribute to the development of a disease by serving as models for human diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s.
- Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual’s cells and tissues to treat diseases especially hereditary diseases. It does so by replacing a defective mutant allele with a functional one or gene targeting which involves gene amplification.