Tag: biotechnology and its application

Biotechnology involves the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, vaccines etc. It also involves various other methods involving production, amplification of DNA segments like DNA probe. 

Both wine and beer are essentially the products of the fermentation process - the fermented broth serves as the basis of the product. Other alcoholic beverages (whisky, rum, brandy) fall under the category of distilled spirits. Distillation is the process by which the alcohol is removed from the fermented broth (or wort) by heating the wort until the alcohol vaporizes, after which it is condensed. When almost pure alcohol is distilled from fermentation, the product is called as grain neutral spirits (GNS). 

Southern blotting involves DNA digestion, Gel electrophoresis, Blotting, Probe labeling, Hybridization and washing, and detection.

Agrobacterium tumefacians is used for the production of transgenic plants as it carries a plasmid capable of inducing tumors in plants. These tumors can be artificially induced by transferring the gene into a plant which otherwise is not prone to infection, where the plasmid is genetically engineered for inserting a particular gene, for example, the transfer of delta endotoxin and npt II gene, from Bacillus thuringiensis, in commercially useful plants like cotton to protect it from its predator, the gall worm

Bio-remediation is a waste management technique that involves the use of organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants from a contaminated site. Bio-remediation is a treatment that uses naturally occurring organisms to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or non toxic substances. 

A transgenic crop plant contains a gene or genes which have been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring them through pollination. The inserted gene sequence (known as the transgene) may come from another unrelated plant, or from a completely different species: transgenic Bt corn, for example, which produces its own insecticide, contains a gene from a bacterium.