Some uses of Biotechnology / Part Two

about 4 years ago

To those who have a particular interest in this topic of biotechnology, here I bring the second part, in which I will bring some interesting data about other uses that DNA technology has.

_{I recommend reviewing the previous post: Some uses of Biotechnology / Part one - Diagnosis of Coronavirus}

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I think I didn't clearly define what technology is in the previous post, here I leave a very easy to understand concept:

"Biotechnology refers to any technological application that uses biological systems and living organisms or their derivatives to create or modify products or processes for specific uses"_{Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 2. Use of Terms, United Nations. 1992}

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Agricultural biotechnology:

This is a very interesting case of using technology to improve plant productivity through genetic manipulation of seeds. The known and debated transgenic.

This gives the possibility of generating food (potatoes, tomatoes, everything) with qualities that are not natural, for example:

Introducing into the genetic code of a tomato the gene that implies a growth beyond what is considered normal, example we can see tomatoes the size of a pumpkin.

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We can also achieve that some foods, such as onions, proceed to insert in its genome the gene that makes it capable of growing in the cold. Experiments already carried out, I must emphasize, in which the gene for tolerance to cold of a fish that only lives in the deep sea is added to an onion seed and gives it such a faculty.

There are thousands of examples like these, which in a way result in a great benefit to mankind. But at the same time, and this is where the debate comes in, there are those who argue that these genetic alterations in natural products can bring great diseases like cancer to humans.

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Biotechnology in pharmaceuticals:

There is another sector that is fundamental for humanity and that is health, more so in these times. This particularly is an area that interests me, very much, in order to understand how the application of Biotechnology of DNA is here, I explain first the following:

In general, all living beings have created through evolution a series of natural tools to protect themselves from disease, the same happens at the level of unicellular organisms, in this specific case I want to talk about fungi and bacteria. Although it is true that some of these cause diseases, it is also true that from them many antibiotics are generated. Did you know that?

They created some ways to defend themselves from other unicellular organisms that attack them (bacteria, fungi, some parasites), well, these substances created to defend themselves served as a basis in the beginning for the generation of the first antibiotics...interesting, don't you think?

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The study of these bacterial defense mechanisms allowed the creation on a large scale of antibiotics that now are the ones that cure some diseases. And all of this thanks to the very detailed study of how well they work. Also vitamins are created from biotechnology, even some like vitamin B12, whose chemical process is very complex to perform synthetically, are obtained from cultures of microorganisms. Do you understand why it's so expensive?