biotechnology Flashcards

Question

What is the importance for steroids (including cortisone)?

Answer 1

* steroids are used for a variety of illnesses, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, eczema * Production used to be. A costly business, the hormone was extracted from the adrenal glands of animals * The Upjohn chemical company found that Rhizpous arrhizus (a steroid found in Mexican yams) to an intermediate which could then be converted to cortisone * this reduced the cost of the cortisone dramatically

Answer 2

* 1-ephedrine, from yeast species * Used as a treatment for asthma * And an an ingredient in nose drops and inhalants

Answer 3

* from Calviceps * Although highly toxic, have significant clinical use as vasoconstrictors * They are used in the induction of ulterus contractions and the trteament of migraines * Lysergic Acid (LSD) first made by the Swiss scientists Hoffman and Stoll

Answer 4

Statins - control cholesterol levels * the most widely used pharmaceutical in the western world

Answer 5

* citric acid * Itaconic and gluconic acid * Ascorbic acid

Answer 6

* Aspergillus Niger fermentation * Used in the food industry in soft drinks, jams and confectionary * Also used to prevent the loss of vitamin C in canned fruit and vegetables

Answer 7

* Itaconic acid - used to improve the properties of vinyl polymers, such as those used in emulsion paint * Produced by Aspergillus terreus, grown in stainless steel aerated tanks * Gluconic acid: used in the toothpaste manufacture * Produced by Aspergillus Niger

Answer 8

* ethanol can be used as a solvent in other industrial processes or as a fuel. It can be made chemically from petroleum or by fermentation using yeasts * The rise in cost and decreasing supply of petroleum products make fermentation an attractive alternative

Answer 9

* produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae * Wide range of uses: as solvents, plasticizers and sweetners * Also used in the manufacture of explosives, cosmetic soaps and anti-freezes * Also used in the printing industry

Answer 10

* giberellic acid from Fusarium moniliforme is a growth promoting plant hormone * It can regulate fruit setting, preventing fruit drop and increasing yield

Answer 11

* mushroom production is a substantial industry. The major of cultivated mushroom (37%) is Agaricus bisphorus and is worth about $4.7 billion per annum worldwide * Other commercial species include the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus and the shiitake mushroom, Lentinula edodes which is grown on logs

Answer 12

- developed by Marlow foods - fusarium venenatum isolated from soil in Buckinghamshire - grown on glucose from maize - the annual sales for Quorn are now in excess fo £15 million in the UK alone

Answer 13

* beverages * Bakers yeast * Dairy produce * Food additives * Asian foods (Natto, Temph and Miso) * Amino acids

Answer 14

The most widely consumed foods processes with thee aid of fungi are bread and alcoholic beverages. * the origins of bread and beverage are lost in antiquity * The sumerians produced a beer consisting of moist fermented bread prior to 7000BCE * The Egyptians also made this bread-beer * Both bread-making and brewing were refined by the Greeks and romans, and became a normal part of household activities

Answer 15

* Rhizopus spp. are used to make tempeh from soybeans. This is the major source of protein for Indonesians * Shoyu (soy sauce) is made in East and Southeast Asia by fermenting a mixture of soybeans, wheat kernels, raw and roasted wheat flour with Aspergillus oryzae * Japan is the leading producer of Shoyu with 27000 manufactures

Answer 16

* mycofiltration is the impregnation of fungal spores and hyphae into fabric landscaping cloth. These fabrics are overlaid onto contaminated ground and the fungal mycelium acts as a filter, trapping and degrading the contaminants. * These technologies are new, and are being used on a small scale. Widespread adoption depends on the acceptance of the technology by the public and by regulators.

Answer 17

* food and fodder * Textiles/fabrics * Paper/wood products * Biodiversity * Ornamentals/amenity * Petroleum substitutes * Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics

Answer 18

‘Application of science and technology to plants, parts, products and models to alter living or inert materials in order to develop knowledge, good and services’ * plant cell factories * Plant tissue culture * Molecular breeding * Transgenic breeding * Food processing * Plant breeding * Wine making

Answer 19

A planned international effort in the 1970s to increase crop yield through - * new crop cultivators * Irrigation * Fertilisers * Pesticides * Mechanisation Reduced chronic hunger from 40% to 20% of the world population whilst the population doubles and saved millions of hectares of land from cultivation but 800 million people are still undernourished.

Answer 20

Faster growth - more than one crop cycle per year Semi dwarf habit - strong stems that don’t fall over (lodging) High yield - better soil assimilation, better biomass Disease resistance - wheat rust, rice blast Adaptability to local conditions - the first ‘miracle rice’ IR8

Answer 21

Some plants can regenerate from a cutting * many plants can regenerate from a few cells but only if the right hormones are provided = plant tissue culture

Answer 22

Micropropagation Eliminating systemic viruses

Answer 23

V Example - fruit tree breeding — apples take 5-10 years to bear fruit, breeders want to change fruit quality so breeding is very slow 1) Find the DNA marker that is closely linked to fruit character eg red fruit 2) Follow it in the progeny of a cross 3) Use the marker to identify the seedlings that will bear red fruit

Answer 24

* generate a fingerprint of the parent plant using random DNA markers eg SNPs from genome sequencing * Find markers that are linked to the phenotype eg red or yellow fruit * Check that the linkage is close * Use markers to identify the plants at the seedling stage SNPs - single nucleotide polymorphisms

Answer 25

Crosses are limited to the same or closely related species * treat plant tissue with enzymes to remove cell wall * Creates protoplasts * Fuse protoplasts from different genotypes * Use polythethylene glycol or electrics pulse

Answer 26

Pre-fertilisation: * asynchrony of flowering * Floral morphology * Self-compatibility Post-fertilisation: * hybrid weakness/sterility Embryo rescue - culture embryos otherwise would die Create new hybrids - useful in a wide range of species

Answer 27

* drugs, dyes, flavours, fragrances * Understand the biochemistry - find the genes, express them in plant cells, harvest the chemicals

Answer 28

* drugs, dyes, flavours, fragrances * Understand the biochemistry - find the genes, express them in plant cells, harvest the chemicals

Answer 29

* 35000 - 70000 plant species have been screened for their medicinal use * Many compounds are now synthesised chemically * 11% of the 252 drugs considered are basic and essential by the who are still exclusively of flowering plant origin

Answer 30

* potent anticancer drug, binds microtubules, stops cell division

Answer 31

Conventional/traditional breeding - cross plants of the same species, select phenotypes in progeny Genetic modification - transgenes, conduct transgene and transform into plant cells * transgene can come from any source, regenerate plants with desired phenotype

Answer 32

* assemble transgene in a bacterial plasmid, transfer to the plant genome, select plants with new traits.

Answer 33

Plant pathogen - disease is crown gall (mass of undifferentiated cells) Bacterium delivers it to its own plasmid DNA into plant genome One gene codes for an enzyme to make the plant hormone cytokinin * replace genes which cause crown gall with trans genes, transgenes are inserted into plant chromosomes

Answer 34

* put transgene into Agrobacterium * Incubate Agrobacterium with leaf discs * Move leaf discs onto selective medium * Wait for shoots discs onto selective medium * Waits for shoots and roots to develop (manipulate growth regulators) * Grow plants on to maturity *tobacco - approx 4 months - good success rate

Answer 35

1) Incubate leaf discs with Agrobacterium 2) Balance cytokinin and auxin to induce callus growth 3) Add more cytokinin to induce shoot growth 4) Add more auxin to induce root growth 5) Transfer to soil and gradually reduce humidity

Answer 36

A gene which is artificially introduced into the genome of another organism

Answer 37

A trans gene, a sequence of DNA introduced into an organisms genome is assembled by combing several key elements: a promoter, the gene to be expressed and a termination sequence. These elements are typically combined in a bacterial plasmid and can be inserted into the host genome via various methods

Answer 38

Increased crop plant yields through - protection from pests and pathogens Improvement of nutritional qualities - * more vitamins * Better proteins * Improved oils * More antioxidants New products - * vaccines * Plastics Protection from pests and pathogens * pests and pathogens reduce crop yield by 30% * Insects damage reduces crop yield by 13%

Answer 39

Bacterium - toxin protein crystals - cry proteins * Bt toxins proteins identified * Genes isolated * Cloned into plasmids * Transformed into plants *clone specific virus coat protein - transform into plants - protection - healthy crop

Answer 40

Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness * rice is a very poor in beta carotene needed for the synthesis of vitamin A * 250,000-500,000 children go blind every year Beta carotene ——— Retinol (vit A) ——— Rhodopsin (visual pigment)

Answer 41

Cloned from 2 species - * Phytoene synthase (psy) from Narcissus pseudnarcissus (daffodils!) * phytoene desaturase from the bacterium Erwinia uredovora Golden rice is then produced, producing beta carotene in the endosperm

Answer 42

Humans can only synthesise 10 out of the 20 amino acids * getting the balance of the essential amino acids can be difficult * Cereals are limited for lysine, pulses are limited for methionine (and cysteine) Identified proteins rich in Lys eg from Psophocarpus tetragonobus, engineered into cereals * not as easy to solve, rice plants not grow as well

Answer 43

* omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential for human health * Microalgae and other microbes are primary source of omega3s PUFAs * Algal oil - tablets, fishes, gm - transgenic plants

Answer 44

More antioxidants in tomato * plant produce anthocyanins = metabolites that give fruits and flowers a red to purple colour = polyphenols that act as antioxidants and protect against cancer * tomatoes are widely consumed, so engineered them to produce more anthocyanins = black tomatoes

Answer 45

Basis- an immunogenic protein or proteins that stimulate the body to make the correct antibody to fight the infection

Answer 46

Edible vaccines: Best plants - tomato, banana, potato Advantages: * no purification needed * Easy to harvest * Can stored dried (no refrigeration) * No contamination with pathogens * No syringes Problems to overcome: * efficiency of expression * Regulatory issues * Clinical trials

Answer 47

Environmental issues - * Will the transgenes escape through pollen or seed? * If they do escape how far will they go? * Will they affect natural environments * Will the use of GM plants in agriculture affect the environment?

Answer 48

Pollen ——— seeds Spread of transgenes through pollen (transgenic pollen) spread by wind, insect pollinators then fertilisation causing transgenic hybrid seeds Spread of transgenes through seed (Oil rape seed at harvest) - wind and animal dispersal to natural habitat outside field, wild populations of transgenic oil rape seed (+human disperal)

Answer 49

Seed of transgenes - effects? * weediness - implies a selective advantage (eg protection from insects) * Crop mixing - effects on wildlife, if expressed proteins are toxic, beneficial insects could be affected Need to compare to current practices - chemical insecticides

Answer 50

* can eating transgenes be harmful? * Can eating transgenic proteins be harmful? * Do all foods contain protein and DNA? * Should GM foods be labelled?

Answer 51

* benefits to the consumer - some vegetarian cheese is made using genetically modified micro-organisms, no problems with cloned human insulin

Answer 52

* transform with a guide RNA targeted to gene linked to sgRNA and with Cas9 gene * Guide RNA includes sequences that target to plant gene of interest * Cas9 makes deletion/insertion in the target gene * Creates a mutation which can knock out the gene functions

Answer 53

* transform with a guide RNA targeted to gene linked to sgRNA and cas9 gene * First generation plants (T0) will have the cas9 transgene * Assuming the cas9 inserts in a different chromosome from the target mutation it can be segregated out in the T1 * Final plants will be mutant with no Cas9 * Can be considered non-transgenic (still under debate in some countries)

biotechnology Flashcards

(78 cards)