1. What Biotech IS…
Look at this stuff! These things are all products of biotechnology.
Beer & Wine: Yeast is used in the fermentation process during the production of alcoholic beverages.
Soft Drinks: Check the label! High fructose corn syrup can be found in everything from soft drinks to potato chips. Microorganisms and enzymes are used to make the very sweet substance.
Flowers, seeds and popcorn: All plants are products of years of breeding for specific desired genetic traits.
Vitamins: vitamins are produced from all sorts of living sources, including plants, fish and microorganisms.
Yogurt: Ever notice the words “live yogurt cultures” on the yogurt containers? A bacterium helps turn milk into yogurt.
Medicine: For years antibiotics and vaccines have been produced using microorganisms with modified genes.

2. What is Biotechnology? Biotechnology (by-o-tek-nawl-a-gee)
Bio—short for biology—the study of living things
Technology—another word for tools, engineering, science
Biotechnology is a tool that uses biology to make new and better products
Biotechnology is a tool to find solutions that improve the health of the Earth and its people
Biotechnology is a big word, but is easy figure if you look closer.
Bio—short for biology—the study of living things
Technology—another word for tools, engineering and science
Biotechnology is a tool that uses biology to make new and better products…
Plants & living organisms (fungus, bacteria, animals) used to make something new.
Plants and animals become more useful/beneficial
Biotechnology will help us
Grow more food
Help the environment
Grow more nutritious food that improves health

3. Three areas of Biotechnology
What is Biotechnology?
Three areas of Biotechnology
Agriculture Developing plants and animals that can produce well
in a variety of environments.
Ex: Can produce during drought, cold, or heat. Resistant to disease, insects, herbicides.
Use of less fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide.
Science
Producing food that will:
reduce spoilage rate
taste better
have an increased nutritional value
have an improved texture or appearance
Medicine
Miracle drugs
Antibiotics
Vaccines
What is agriculture? (Agri – land, Culture – to grow: Agriculture means growing crops or raising livestock on the land.)
Biotechnology will help us
Grow more food
Help the environment
Grow more nutritious food that improves health
Careers Lesson

4. Traditional Plant Breeding
Is Biotech New?
Biotechnology is
an extension of
Traditional Plant Breeding

5. Cells and Organelles
Cells are the building blocks that make up all living things
Everyone is made of cells
The construction instructions for cells came from other living things….every cell contains DNA—the substance that makes us unique
Cells are very small….you can only see them under a microscope

6. Gene Discovery & Expression
Genes tell how to build and manage a cell
You can’t see genes since they are microscopic
All people, plants and animals inherit traits from their parents through genes
How an organism looks and functions is a result of the cumulative effect of all molecules
Genes are a hereditary unit contained in DNA that carry and store information that we need to live
Thousands of traits make you who you are….traits such as eye color, height and hair color are determined by your genes
Parents have two units (genes) that carry traits that determine what their offspring will look like
Each parent passes one of these traits to their offspring
Chrosomes are DNA molecules coiled and bunched together
Humans have 46 chromosomes that sort into 23 pairs
One chromosome in each of the 23 pairs comes from the father…the other from the mother
This information keeps its identity from generation to generation
Gregor Mendel discovered the rules of genetics in the 1860s by experimenting with peas
Genes tell how to build and manage a cell—you can’t see genes since they are microscopic
Some genes are dominant and others are recessive
Dominant genes are expressed in the offspring, recessive may or may not be expressed

7. TRADITIONAL PLANT BREEDING
Desired Gene X
Many genes are transferred
Donor Plant
Commercial Plant Variety
New Plant Variety
PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY +
A single gene is transferred
Desired Gene
Commercial Plant Variety
Improved Commercial Plant Variety
DonorPlant
Breeders select traits for animal performance or plant pest and disease resistance.
Traditional methods rely on genes already present in the organism. Sometimes genes may not be available to solve a problem. Conventional breeding may introduce genes for undesirable traits
Modern biotechnology enables breeders to pinpoint desirable genes and transfer then singly and in a controlled manner. This is a way to use genes from another species. Biotechnology is an additional tool in breeding.
Marble Gene demonstration

8. Biotechnology and You
Improvements in food production—especially in cheese making
Chymosin has replaced rennet that was traditionally used in cheese production
Biotechnology has produced recombinant Chymosin (rtChymosin)
USDA Approved the enzyme in 1990
Chymosin has created an endless supply of a good quality product
75% of cheese is using a protein produced by biotechnoloy
Rennet is a naturally occurring enzyme in the lining of calves’ stomachs that is traditionally used in cheese making.
Rennet varies in purity form %
The gene from the stomach cell is removed and inserted into a bacterial or yeast cell—resulting in the production of the rennin enzyme. This enzyme was named recombinant Chymosin (rtChymosin) and was appoved by USDA in 1990.
Chymosin has created and end less supply of a good quality product because it is easier to obtain and is more plentiful that rennet.

9. How DNA Works DNA forms the genetic code
Nearly every living thing has unique DNA
DNA makes proteins
DNA molecules are shaped like two long ladders twisted around and around
There are 6 types of chemicals that make up DNA
DNA is a microscopic material in cells that tells them how to operate and look
DNA is found in the nucleus of cells
In humans DNA is a very long molecule—if we stretched out the DNA from one cell it would be 6 feet long.
DNA makes proteins, proteins make cells, cells make up lining things
In 1953 James Watson and Frances Crick determined the structure of DNA. Because of their work, scientists have been able to learn many things about DNA and biotechnology
Each strand of the ladder is composed of alternating sugar and phosphates
The rungs of the ladder are made up of the other 4 chemiclas:
adenine, thymine, cytosine & guanine (A T C G)
Each rung is made up of 2 chemicals. Adenine always joins thymine to make a rung and cytosine always joins guanine ot make another rung
Although DNA only uses 4 chemicals, it is almost impossible to count the potential combinations
Do DNA Dance and DNA Extraction

10. Recombinant DNA
Identify and cut the selected gene using restriction enzymes
Restriction enzymes occur naturally in bacteria (as a protective mechanism against bacteriophage) and cut double-stranded DNA at specific restriction sites of 4 to 8 nucleotides in a palindromic arrangement. The cuts can be blunt or staggered so that when the two strands are separated, they have complementary cohesive or “sticky” ends that will easily bind to each other or to other complementary pieces of DNA. There are many different restriction enzymes, each of which cuts DNA only at a specific sequence. Methylation of nuceltides at the restriction site will interfere with restriction digestion.

11. Insert that gene into a plasmid (a plasmid is a circular piece of DNA used like a bus or shuttle…)
The cut pieces are mixed, and the gene inserts itself into the plasmid, first by simple hydrogen bonding of the bases; then a DNA ligase is added to join the phosphonucleotides.
Paper Plasmid Activity

12. Place the plasmid into a bacterial cell where the desired traits can be produced.
Clone the plasmid.
Then the recombinant plasmid is put into E. coli, which is grown on selective media (to select colonies with the plasmid, which also carries an antibiotic resistance gene).
As the E. coli colonies grow, the plasmid replicates, often several times for each time the bacterial chromosome replicates itself. This gives us many copies of the plasmid and the inserted gene.
Do Paper Plasmid Activity

13. Polymerase Chain Reaction
To make many copies of specific pieces of DNA
The polymerase chain reaction is the selective amplification, many thousand fold, of certain segments of DNA. Primers (short pieces of DNA complementary to the sequence at either end of the region you want to amplify) attach to either end of the region of interest, and DNA polymerase attaches and moves from along each strand, adding nucleotides to form a new complementary strain (note that DNA polymerase can only move in the 5’ to 3’ direction).
PCR Activity

14. The Future of Biotechnology
Land is a precious resource.
The world’s population is growing but the amount of land we have for farming is not!
It will become harder to grow food for everyone on Earth.
Biotechnology is one method being used to help farmers grow more food.
Someday, we could be able to grow food on land that was not good for farming—too dry, too rocky, etc.
With a growing world population and shrinking farmlands how can we continue feeding ourselves? Biotechnology is one answer to this growing problem.
Feed the Hungry world Lesson