Investigate the uses and applications of biotechnology

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Investigate the uses and applications of biotechnology (past, present and future), including: (ACSBL087)

• analysing the social implications and ethical uses of biotechnology, including plant and animal examples
• researching future directions of the use of biotechnology
• evaluating the potential benefits for society of research using genetic technologies
• evaluating the changes to the Earth’s biodiversity due to genetic techniques

Uses of Biotechnology:

• The Pre-20th Century:
  • Fermentation to Produce Foods:
    • The most ancient biotechnological discovery and being used for over 10,000 years.
    • Final products of these technique were wine, beer, vinegar and bread using microorganisms, primarily yeast. Yogurt was produced by lactic acid bacteria in milk and molds were used to produce cheese.
    • These processes are still in use today. However, today's cultures have been purified (and often genetically refined) to maintain the most desirable traits and highest quality products.
  • Industrial Fermentation:
    • In 1897, the fact that enzymes from yeast can convert sugar to alcohol was discovered, which led to the production of chemicals such as butanol, acetone and glycerol.
    • Fermentation processes are still being used today in many modern biotech organizations, often to produce enzymes used in pharmaceutical processes, environmental remediation and other industrial processes.
  • Food Preservation:
    • The process of drying, salting and freezing food to prevent spoilage was being practiced long before anyone really understood why these steps worked or even fully understood what caused food to spoil in the first place.
  • Quarantines:
    • The act of quarantining to prevent the spread of disease was in place long before the origins of disease were known to mankind. Isolating the sick demonstrates an early understanding that illness can be passed from an infected individual to another (healthy) individual, who then becomes symptomatic.
  • Selective Plant Breeding:
    • Crop improvement (i.e., selecting seeds from the most successful plants and producing a new crop with the most desirable traits) is a form of early crop technology.
    • Farmers learned early-on that using only seeds from the best plants would eventually enhance subsequent crops.
    • In the mid-1860's, Gregor Mendel's studies on inheritable traits of peas improved our understanding of genetic inheritance and lead to the practice of cross-breeding (now known as hybridization).
  • Fortunate "Accidents":
  • The discovery of natural biological processes has often come about by accidental. The surprising qualities of salt, fermentation, desiccation (removing moisture from food to avoid spoilage) and cross-breeding were almost certainly discovered by accident. So were some of our most important medicines, such as Penicillin.
• Modern Biotechnology:
  • Medicine
    • Gene modification or transgenesis are used to produce therapeutic human proteins in cells or whole organisms. The cell or organism used depends upon how large and complex the protein is. For example, human insulin, a small protein used to treat diabetes, is made in genetically engineered bacteria, whereas large, more complex proteins like hormones or antibodies are made in mammalian cells or transgenic animals.
    • Antibiotics and vaccines are products of microorganisms that are used to treat disease. Modern biotechnologies involve manipulating vaccines so they are more effective or can be delivered by different routes.
    • Gene therapy technologies are being developed to treat diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s disease and cystic fibrosis.
    • Xenotransplantation is the transplanting of cells, tissue or organs from one species into another.
  • Agriculture
    • Plants and animals can be improved by selectively breeding for particular traits or by genetic modification.
    • Beneficial traits can be identified visually or by DNA profiling.
    • For example, farmers may want plants with herbicide or insect resistance, tolerance to different growing environments or improved storage, or they may want livestock with better meat and wool or resistance to disease.
  • Forensics
    • DNA profiling is used in forensic analysis to identify DNA samples at a crime scene or to determine parentage.
  • Bioremediation
    • Organisms or parts of organisms can be used to clean up pollution in soil, water or air.
    • Biological processes and microorganisms both play a significant role in the removal or conversion of many types of contaminants, and bioremediation seeks to take advantage of this fact to devise ways of removing them from the environment.
  • Biological engineering
    • Is a subdiscipline within the field of engineering which focuses on a highly physical side of biotechnology.
    • Applications include biomedical engineering, which applies engineering techniques and technology to the development of medical equipment and other items such as artificial body parts, including implants, prosthetic limbs and even artificial organs.
• Future uses of Biotechnology:
  • Personalized Medicine:
    • Customization of healthcare that is tailored to the individual patient where a patient’s genetic content, or other molecular analysis such as genetic polymorphisms for drug metabolism, is used to select medical treatments.
    • Using pharmacogenomics, pharmaceutical companies can create drugs based on the proteins, enzymes and RNA molecules that are associated with specific genes and diseases. These tailor-made drugs promise not only to maximize therapeutic effects but also to decrease damage to nearby healthy cells.
    • Knowing a patient’s genetics will enable doctors to determine how well his/ her body can process and metabolize a medicine. This will maximize the value of the medicine and decrease the likelihood of overdose.
    • The discovery of potential therapies will be made easier using genome targets. Genes have been associated with numerous diseases and disorders. With modern biotechnology, these genes can be used as targets for the development of effective new therapies, which could significantly shorten the drug discovery process.
  • Microbiome manipulation:
    • Collection of different microbial populations that live in a specific niche, such as the gut, skin surface, mouth, soil, or water is termed as Microbiome.
    • Direct, or indirect, manipulation of the microbiome using tailored probiotics, genome engineering, synthetic biology or other approaches will result in improved tolerance of food and improved resistance to disease.
    • This technology may extend or increase learning capacity, alertness, ability to perform in a stressful environment, enable integration of sensing in novel ways.
    • More unpredictable but game changing uses include probiotics that will establish microbes in the gastrointestine (GI) capable of responding to stressors, events, threats, needs through initiation of a cascade of responses in the presence of a stimulus such as a chemical.
  • Biomanufacturing:
    • Uses biotechnology approaches to produce commodity products, biologically based molecules, or molecules that can be used in construction of materials.
    • Currently, most efforts are focused on pharmaceutical production or bulk chemical production.
    • New biomanufacturing approaches utilizing bacteria where synthetic biology has been used to create artificial pathways for synthesis of chemicals that are useful in energy (biofuels), in product synthesis (chemical precursors) or production of complex biochemicals for antibiotics.
  • Synthetic biology:
    • A discipline that focuses on making synthetic organic, living organisms or devices with properties that do not occur in nature, offers great promise in controlled design of new technologies using biological engineering.
    • Although Synthetic Biology has great potential for useful applications, there is also a risk of a synthetic organisms escaping and potentially damaging the environment or the intentional creation of harmful organisms.
    • For example, DARPA has started a program called Biological Robustness in Complex Settings that supports developing synthetic biology approaches that are more stable and safer to use in complex biological environments. One of the stated goals of the DARPA program is safety, defined as the development of methods to control the growth and proliferation of engineered organisms in complex settings.
    • Technologies based on synthetic biology might provide new mechanisms for sensing and responding to different signals (chemical, biological, magnetic, electric). Primitive ultralow power, or energy generating, synthetic organisms will be used to control simple devices, calculate events, and for general monitoring of the environment.
  • Gene therapy:
    • Gene therapy may be used for treating, or even curing, genetic and acquired diseases like cancer and AIDS by using normal genes to supplement or replace defective genes or to bolster a normal function such as immunity.
    • It can be used to target somatic (i.e., body) or gametes (i.e., egg and sperm) cells. In somatic gene therapy, the genome of the recipient is changed, but this change is not passed along to the next generation.
    • In contrast, in germline gene therapy, the egg and sperm cells of the parents are changed for the purpose of passing on the changes to their offspring.

Analysing the social implications and ethical uses of biotechnology, including plant and animal examples

• Harm to the Environment:
  • Whether a GMO (genetically modified organism) may or may not cause harm to the environment and its adaptability with the changing climatic conditions still cannot be predicted. In some cases, the effect of the existence of a GMO on other organisms raises questions too. For example, A strain of corn has been created with a gene that encodes a natural pesticide. On the positive side, the transgenic corn is not eaten by insects, so there is more corn for people to eat. The corn also doesn’t need to be sprayed with chemical pesticides, which can harm people and other living things. On the negative side, the transgenic corn has been shown to cross-pollinate nearby milkweed plants. Offspring of the cross-pollinated milkweed plants are now known to be toxic to monarch butterfly caterpillars that depend on them for food. Scientists are concerned that this may threaten the monarch species as well as other species that normally eat monarchs.
• Bioterrorism:
  • Governments are worried that terrorists will use biotechnology to create new Superbugs, infectious viruses, or toxins, for which we have no cures.
• Laboratory/production safety:
  • It's hard to protect oneself if you don't know what you're working with. Some new technologies, usually nonbiologicals such as nanoparticles make commercial production lines before they have been sufficiently tested for safety. There is also concern about technician safety in laboratories, even under secured conditions, when working with organisms of unknown virulence.
• Protecting Human Subjects in Clinical Trials:
  • At times, human trials don’t work the way they are planned which may cause the subjects on which the products / technologies are used are harmed and in severe cases, these tests and trials turn out to be lethal.
  • This issue has generated considerable debate since 1999, when 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died while participating in a gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Affordability:
  • A wide number of clinical biotech products and treatments cannot be afforded by the mass public.

Potential benefits for society of research using genetic technologies

• It allows for a faster growth rate:
  • Genetic engineering allows of plants or animals to be modified so their maturity can occur at a quicker pace.
  • Engineering can allow this maturity to occur outside of the normal growth conditions that are favourable without genetic changes as well.
  • Even if there is higher levels of heat or lower levels of light, it becomes possible to expand what can be grown in those conditions.
• It can create an extended life:
  • Genetic modification can help to create resistance to common forms of organism death.
  • Pest resistance can be included into the genetic profiles of plants so they can mature as a crop without any further additives.
  • Animals can have their genetic profiles modified to reduce the risks of common health concerns that may affect the breed or species. This creates the potential for an extended lifespan for each organism.
• Specific traits can be developed:
  • Plants and animals can have specific traits developed through genetic engineering that can make them more attractive to use or consumption.
  • Different colours can be created to produce a wider range of produce. Animals can be modified to produce more milk, grow more muscle tissue, or produce different coats so that a wider range of fabrics can be created.
• New products can be created:
  • With genetic engineering, new products can be created by adding or combining different profiles together. One example of this is to take a specific product, such as a potato, and alter its profile so that it can produce more nutrients per kcal than without the genetic engineering.
  • This makes it possible for more people to get what they need nutritionally, even if their food access is limited, and this could potentially reduce global food insecurity.
• Greater yields can be produced:
  • Genetic engineering can also change the traits of plants or animals so that they produce greater yields per plant.
  • More fruits can be produced per tree, which creates a greater food supply and more profits for a farmer.
  • It also creates the potential for using modified organisms in multiple ways because there is a greater yield available.
  • Modified corn, for example, can be used for specific purposes, such as animal feed, ethanol, or larger cobs for human consumption.
• Risks to the local water supply are reduced:
  • Because farmers and growers do not need to apply as many pesticides or herbicides to their croplands due to genetic engineering, fewer applications to the soil need to occur.
  • This protects the local watershed and reduces the risk of an adverse event occurring without risking the yield and profitability that is needed.
• It is a scientific practice that has been in place for millennia:
  • Humans in the past may not have been able to directly modify the DNA of a plant or animal in a laboratory, but they still practiced genetic engineering through selective breeding and cross-species or cross-breeding.
  • People would identify specific traits, seek out other plants or animals that had similar traits, and then breed them together to create a specific result. Genetic engineering just speeds up this process and can predict an outcome with greater regularity.

Changes to the Earth’s biodiversity due to genetic techniques:

• Herbicide Use:
  • When a herbicide is applied across agricultural landscapes, harmful chemicals enter natural ecosystems.
  • Herbicide-resistant crops encourage increased use of herbicides, and when more herbicides are used, even more chemicals end up in natural systems.
  • These chemicals kill native plants that feed animals and sicken amphibians directly, causing a decrease in biodiversity.
• Unfavourable Diversity Development:
  • At some point, genetically engineered plants and animals interact with domestic species.
  • This results in a crossing of wildtype and genetically modified organisms.
  • The engineered organisms often dominate, resulting in only a modified species over several generations, reducing the diversity that is available.
• Adaptation of Pathogens:
  • Bacteria and viruses evolve a resistance to the resistance that is created by the genetic engineering efforts.
  • This causes the pathogens to become stronger and more resistant than they normally would be, potentially creating future health concerns that are unforeseen.
• Spreading Engineered Genes:
  • There is concern that the use of GM organisms can potentially introduce exotic genes and organisms into the environment that may disrupt natural communities and other ecosystems.
  • GM animals can escape from fishponds and cages, while GM plants can spread their seeds outside fields and greenhouses.
  • This incursion into natural ecosystems can contaminate the natural gene pool and disrupt the biodiversity of such ecosystems.

References:

1. The 5 Most Pressing Ethical Issues in Biotech Medicine – ED Silverman
2. North Carolina Biotechnology Center. "What is Biotechnology?" http://www.ncbiotech.org/biotech-basics/what-is-biotechnology
3. Harvard School of Public Health: Genetically Modified Foods
4. Genetic Engineering in Agriculture and the Environment: Assessing Risks and Benefits – Maurizio G., Paoletti and David Pimentel

Extract from HSC Biology Stage 6 Syllabus. © 2017 Board of Studies NSW.