Tag: applications of biotechnology

A bioreactor may refer to any manufactured or engineered device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In animals, the production of biologically active recombinant proteins use transgenic animals as bioreactor. Bioreactor or fermentation processes are the core manufacturing process in the biotech industry. 

A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA methodology. A transgenic organism carries in all its cells a foreign gene that was inserted by laboratory techniques. Each transgenic organism is produced by introducing cloned genes, composed of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from microbes, animals or plants, into plant and animal cells. 

Reporter genes are classified into selectable markers (which allow survival under selective pressure) and scoreable markers (which allow visual identification of transformed cells).

Selectable markers provide a survival advantage (like antibiotic resistance) to transformed cells while inhibiting the growth of non-transformed cells in a selective medium.

The ethical issues considered for developing transgenic animals are yielding capacity, long term effect on the environment, quality of the breed. They include bioethicists, environmentalists. the results of genetic alteration would be suffered and hence such experimentation should be banned (Eg, a pig with no legs)

The genetic engineering of animals has increased significantly in recent years, and the use of this technology brings with it ethical issues, some of which relate to animal welfare — defined by the World Organisation for Animal Health as “the state of the animal.

Pseudomonas putida is a well-known bacterium genetically engineered to degrade hydrocarbons, including naphthalene, making it useful for bioremediation.

Acrylamide does not form, or forms at lower levels, in dairy, meat, and fish products. so the enzymatic degradation of lactose in dairy produts can reduce the acrylamide.

Alpha-lactalbumin is a major milk whey protein. It is involved in the process of lactose synthesis. The first transgenic cow was produced with human alpha-lactalbumin gene introduced into it. The milk of transgenic cow contained about 2.4 grams/lit of human protein.