What is Biotechnology?
The word ‘Biotechnology’ was coined in the year 1919 by the Hungarian Karoly Erekyto and defines the technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product. It has been in practice long before the term ‘biotechnology’ was itself coined. Splitting the word in two parts can derive biotechnology definition: ‘Bio’ meaning life and ‘Technology’, which means skill or tool. It covers a broad aspect of science where living organisms can be used as biological tools to obtain new beneficial products.
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It is commonly applied in the fields of agriculture, industry, and medicine. This science has existed since the ancient times. A typical example is how we use our hands to mix corn dough, to allow the microorganisms on our hands (germs) to act as agents that bring about fermentation. Other products of fermentation are Pito and Palm wine. The production of cheese from milk as well as the use of yeast, a biological organism, to cause dough to rise are all under the umbrella of biotechnology. The discoveries in biotechnology were mainly in the area of fermentation and in the 1940s, “penicillin” was discovered and ‘steroids’ unearthed in the 1950s.
With advancements in the field of science, biotechnology has progressed into what is currently referred to as modern biotechnology and is associated with several disciplines in science which include tissue culture, molecular markers, genomics and bioinformatics, recombinant Deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) technology, expression profiling, systems biology, proteomics, molecular diagnostics, mutation breeding and genetic engineering as applied to improve yields and quality of mostly high-value crops, livestock and other farming processes.
Modern Biotechnology has come about because of the discoveries in science. Every living organism is made up of units called cells and these units have a control centre known as the nucleus. Within the control centre is the system known as Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This system carries the basic information which can be referred to as molecules that are responsible for our character, known as genes. This is demonstrated in the plant cell below:
These genes are distinct sections of the DNA that generate the information needed to assemble a specific trait in the form of proteins. The proteins in this case function as catalysts or enzymes. These enzymes ultimately contribute to the plant expressing a particular trait. This system of handling down information from DNA into the characteristics is referred to as the “central dogma” in science and demonstrated below.
The Central Dogma is the basis of all biological lives on how DNA transcribes to mRNA and translates to protein, which through metabolism results in the trait (phenotype).
Hence, traits in all organisms are controlled by genes and genes make up our DNA. One therefore has to identify the particular gene controlling the expression of a particular trait. Once the gene is identified, it can be isolated and transferred to another organism which hitherto did not have that gene.
Following knowledge about the structure of the basic molecules that make up the different living organisms, by 1973, two scientists by name Cohen and Boyer managed to move a section of DNA (gene) from one bacteria to another bacteria. This new approach was referred to as recombinant DNA technology. In this technique, the bacteria which received the gene could express the character associated with the introduced gene and is subsequently referred to as genetic engineering (GE), and currently defines the basis of modern biotechnology. Subsequently, GE crops were first grown on commercial scale in 1996 and this covered 1.7 million hectares. As of 2013, more than 175 million hectares of land had been cropped with GE on commercial basis. This is more than 100-fold increase, which makes biotechnology crops the fastest adopted technology in recent times.
Biotechnology is therefore an aspect of science that has been with us and it is still happening around us and will continue to be used daily to make life better. It has been used in the fields of medicine, agriculture, environment, food processing and mechanical engineering. Several countries have explored it to utilise it for a better life and we in Ghana are benefactors. It is up to us as a nation to explore how this field of science can be used to understand biological systems; namely human, microorganisms, plants and animal, which will help us to improve our medicine, agriculture and environment.
This article was written by Charles Afriyie-Debrah, Marian D. Quain, Ruth N.A. Prempeh and James Y. Asibuo
CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi
