Biotechnology: Applications in Industry and Environment
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially used in agriculture, pharmacy, food science, environment, and medicine. It develops into a multidisciplinary approach involving various disciplines and sciences like biology, biochemistry, genetics, virology, agronomy, engineering, physics, chemistry, medicine, and veterinary, among others. It has a great impact on pharmacy, medicine, microbiology, food science, mining, agriculture, and other fields.
Under the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992, Biotechnology is defined as “any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof to make or modify products or processes for specific use.”
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity defines modern biotechnology as the application of:
- In vitro techniques of nucleic acid, including deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles or
- The fusion of cells beyond the taxonomic family that overcome natural physiological barriers of reproduction or recombination and are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection.
History
What today is known as genetic engineering or recombinant DNA was part of the discovery made in 1970 by Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans. The enzyme (restrictase) can recognize and cut DNA at specific sequences. Biotechnology has its roots in molecular biology, a field of study that evolved rapidly in the 1970s, giving rise to the first biotechnology company, Genentech, in 1976.
Applications
Biotechnology has applications in key industrial areas such as:
- Healthcare, with the development of new approaches to treating diseases.
- Agriculture, with the development of improved crops and food.
- Uses of non-food crops such as biodegradable plastics, vegetable oils, and biofuels.
- Environmental care through bioremediation, such as recycling, waste treatment, and cleanup of sites contaminated by industrial activities.
It also applies genetics to modify certain organisms.
Applications in Biotechnology
- Red Biotechnology: Applies to the use of biotechnology in medical processes. Examples include the design of organisms to produce antibiotics, the development of vaccines, and the development of genetic engineering to cure diseases through genetic manipulation.
- White Biotechnology: Also known as industrial biotechnology, is that applied to industrial processes. One example is the design of organisms to produce a chemical or the use of enzymes as industrial catalysts, either to produce valuable chemicals or destroy hazardous chemical contaminants (e.g. using oxidoreductases).
- Green Biotechnology: Is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. One example is the design of transgenic plants that can grow in environmental stresses or plants resistant to pests and diseases.
- Blue Biotechnology: Also called Marine biotechnology, it is a term used to describe the applications of biotechnology in marine and aquatic environments. Even at an early stage of development, there are promising applications for aquaculture, healthcare, cosmetics, and food products.
Bioremediation and Biodegradation
Bioremediation is the process by which microorganisms are used to clean up a contaminated site. Biological processes play an important role in removing pollutants, and biotechnology leverages the catabolic versatility of microorganisms to degrade and convert these compounds. In the field of environmental microbiology, studies based on the genome open new areas of research in silico, expanding the panorama of metabolic networks and their regulation, as well as clues on the molecular pathways of degradation and adaptation strategies to changing environmental conditions. The approaches of functional genomics and metagenomics increase understanding of different regulatory pathways and networks of carbon flow in non-standard and special compounds, which will undoubtedly accelerate the development of bioremediation technologies and biotransformation processes. Maritime environments are especially vulnerable because spills…