Biotech and GM

Question 1

How is vinegar produced?

Answer 1

Using acetic acid bacteria
They produce acetic acid from sugars or ethanol
Obligate aerobes
Grow well at pH<5

Question 2

How is vitamin C produced using biotech?

Answer 2

Acetic acid bacteria can carry out incomplete oxidation of some higher alcohols and sugars
These metabolic products are used to make vitamin C

Question 3

How can antibiotics be produced using biotech?

Answer 3

Produced particularly by the streptomycetes
>500 distinct antibiotics are produced by the streptomycetes
Some species produce >1 antibiotic

Question 4

How is Swiss cheese produced using biotech?

Answer 4

Propionic acid bacteria
Produce carbon dioxide and propionic acid during fermentation
Gas building up forms the holes
Propionic acid gives characteristic taste

Question 5

What is the first human protein commercially produced using bacteria and when did it go on sale? What was it called?

Answer 5

Insulin
1982
Humulin

Question 6

detective pikachu is cute

Answer 6

yeet

Question 7

How is it most efficient to produce insulin via biotech?

Answer 7

Most efficient to construct artificial gene that encodes final hormone rather than make large precursor protein insulin naturally derives from

Question 8

What are the issues with expressing mammalia genes in bacteria?

Answer 8

Eukaryotic genes must be put under the control of a bacterial promoter
Bacterial genes don’t have introns
Codon bias
Mammalian proteins require post-translational modifications that bacteria may not be able to do
Eukaryotic protein may be toxic to prokaryotes
Protein may be degraded in the host cell

Question 9

What is a potential solution to eukaryotic genes needing to be put under control of a bacterial

Answer 9

Design special expression vectors with bacterial promoters and ribosome binding site

Question 10

How do you overcome the issue that bacterial genes don’t have introns?

Answer 10

Introns must be removed from eukaryotic genes

Could clone gene via mRNA and cDNA

Question 11

How do you overcome the issue of codon bias in expressing mammalia genes in bacteria?

Answer 11

Codon usage varies from organism to organism

May need to alter the codons used to fit with those recognised by your bacterial species

Question 12

What is pathway engineering?

Answer 12

Process of assembling a new or improved biochemical pathway using genes from one or more organisms
Aiming to produce large amounts of a particular metabolite

Question 13

What is bioremediation?

Answer 13

Microbial clean up of environmental pollutants by metabolising or detoxifying environmental pollutants like oil, radionuclides, pesticides and plastics

Question 14

What are microbial plastics?

Answer 14

Biodegradable plastics made by bacteria

Issues with cost of production vs. synthetic plastics and competition with biofuels for carbon substrates

Question 15

How can microbes help with mining?

Answer 15

Microbial leaching
Can use microbes to extract valuable metals form low grade ores
Microbes have diverse metabolisms

Question 16

What is the metagenome?

Answer 16

Collective genome of all the organisms growing in an environment

Question 17

What is gene mining?

Answer 17

Isolating potentially useful novel genes without having to first culture the organism
Metagenomics has identified novel genes, often encoding enzymes with industrial applications
Can be used to screen directly for enzymes with certain properties

Question 18

What is plant biotechnology?

Answer 18

Application of science and tech to plants, parts, products and models, to alter living or inert materials, in order to develop knowledge, goods and services

Question 19

What was the green revolution?

Answer 19

A planned international effort in the 1970s to increase crop yield through new crop cultivars, irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides and mechanisation
Reduced chronic hunger from 40% to 20% of world population whilst the population has doubled
Saved millions of hectares of land from cultivation

Question 20

What did plant breeding and the green revolution achieve specifically?

Answer 20

Faster growth (more than one crop cycle per year)
High yield (better soil assimilation and better biomass)
Semi dwarf habit
Disease resistance (wheat rust and rice blast)
Adaptability to local conditions

Question 21

Why is plant tissue culture useful?

Answer 21

Some plants can regenerate from a cutting
Micropropagation
Eliminating systemic viruses

Question 22

What are some tricks to speed up plant breeding?

Answer 22

Protoplast fusion

Embryo rescue

Question 23

What can we use plant cells as factories for?

Answer 23

Drugs
Dyes
Flavours
Fragrances

Question 24

How many plant species have been screened for their medical use?

Answer 24

35,000-70,000

Question 25

What percentage of the 252 drugs considered basic/ essential by the WHO are exclusively of flowering plant origin?

Answer 25

11%

Question 26

What is taxol?

Answer 26

Potent anti-cancer drug Binds microtubules to stop cell division Was isolated from the bark of the Pacific Yew Tree

Question 27

How can GM plants help?

Answer 27

Increased crop plant yields: protection from pests and pathogens Improvement of nutritional qualities: more vitamins, proteins and antioxidants New products: vaccines and plastics

Question 28

What impact do pests and pathogens have on crop yield?

Answer 28

Reduce crop yield by 30%

Question 29

What impact does insect have on crop yield?

Answer 29

Reduces crop yield by 13%

Question 30

What does vitamin A deficiency cause?

Answer 30

Blindness | 250,000-500,000 children go blind every year

Question 31

What has some rice been engineered to produce?

Answer 31

Beta carotene

Question 32

What would be the benefit of genetically modifying tomatoes?

Answer 32

To get more antioxidants | Tomatoes are widely consumed so engineer them to produce more anthocyanins

Question 33

What is a vaccine?

Answer 33

An immunogenic protein or proteins that stimulate the body to make the correct antibody to fight the infection

Question 34

What would be the benefit of plant derived vaccines?

Answer 34

``` No purification needed Easy to harvest Can be stored dried (no refrigeration) No contamination with pathogens No syringes ```

Question 35

What are some problems to overcome with plant derived vaccines?

Answer 35

Efficiency of expression Regulatory issues Clinical trials

Question 36

How can transgenic plants be used to produce plastics?

Answer 36

Produces biodegradable plastic polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) PHB granules can be visualised in the plant 3-4 genes are needed to code for the enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway Difficulties in extracting the plastic from the plant

Question 37

Why are microorganisms, including fungi, so useful for making different products?

Answer 37

``` Ease of mass cultivation Grow rapidly Grow on cheap substrates Diversity of potential products Can be genetically manipulated ```

Question 38

When was penicillin first purified and by who? What were they spurred on by?

Answer 38

1941 Florey and Chain Spurred on by need to treat war casualties

Question 39

What are steroids used for and what was the issue with production? How was this dealt with?

Answer 39

Used for variety of illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and eczema Production was costly, hormone was extracted from animals adrenal glands Found Rhizpous arrhizus could convert diosgenin to an intermediate that can then be converted to cortisone

Question 40

What is 1-Ephedrine used for?

Answer 40

Treatment for asthma and as an ingredient in nose drops and inhalants

Question 41

What are Ergot alkaloids used for?

Answer 41

``` High toxic but useful as vasoconstrictors Used in uterus contractions and treatment of migraines lysergic acid (LSD) first made by Swiss scientists ```

Question 42

What do statins do?

Answer 42

Control cholesterol levels | Most widely used pharmaceutical in the western world

Question 43

What is citric acid used for?

Answer 43

Used in food industry for soft drinks, jams and confectionary Also used to prevent loss of vitamin C in canned fruit and veg

Question 44

What is itaconic acid used for?

Answer 44

Improve the properties of vinyl polymers such as those used in emulsion paint Produced by Aspergillus terreus, grown in stainless steel aerated tanks

Question 45

What is gluconic acid used for?

Answer 45

Used in toothpaste manufacture | Produced by Aspergillus niger

Question 46

What can industrial alcohol be used for?

Answer 46

Ethanol can be used as a solvent in industrial processes or as a fuel Can be made chemically from petroleum or by fermentation using yeast Rise in cost and decrease supply of petroleum products make fermentation an alternative

Question 47

What are glycerols used for and what are they produced by?

Answer 47

Produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Wide range of uses: solvents, plasticisers, sweeteners Manufacturing explosives, cosmetic soaps and anti-freeze Also used in printing industry

Question 48

What is Giberellic acid?

Answer 48

From Fusarium moniliforme Growth-promoting hormone Can regulate fruit setting, prevent fruit drop and increase yield

Question 49

How can fungi be used as food?

Answer 49

``` Mushroom production Quorn Beverages Bakers yeast Dairy produce Food additives Bread ```

Question 50

What is quorn?

Answer 50

Developed by Marlow foods Fusarium venenatum isolated from soil in Buckinghamshire Grown on glucose from maize Annual sales are now in excess of £15 million in UK

Question 51

How are bread and beverages produced using fungi?

Answer 51

Utilises yeast, mostly Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Yeasts ferment glucose to yield ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide

Question 52

How can fungi be used to produce cheese?

Answer 52

Texture and flavour of camembert cheese | Flavour and aroma of Roquefort cheese

Question 53

What is biological control?

Answer 53

Defined as the use of one organism to control another Attractive alternative to chemical pesticides Microbes have been used

Question 54

What is mycofiltration?

Answer 54

Impregnation of fungal spores and hyphae into fabric landscaping cloth These fabrics are put onto contaminated ground and the fungal mycelium acts as a filter, trapping and degrading contaminants