HISTORY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Suhail Muzaffar
National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road Bangalore 560065, India
Keywords: Biotechnology, Ancient Biotechnology, Classical Genetics, Discovery of DNA, Genetic engineering, Outline of the Chapter
Sl. No. Contents
1 Overview
2 Biotechnology Time Lines
3 Periods of Biotechnology History
3.1. Ancient biotechnology
3.2. Classical biotechnology
3.3. Modern biotechnology
4 References
1. Overview
The term “Biotechnology” was first coined by a Hungarian agricultural engineer Károly Ereky in 1919. His scientific work laid the foundations of this new discipline and therefore he is regarded as “the father of biotechnology”. Biotechnology has been used by humans since the dawn of
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Periods of Biotechnology History
3.1. Ancient biotechnology (Pre- 1800): Early applications and speculation
3.2. Classical biotechnology (1800-1950): Significant advances in the basic understanding of Genetics
3.3. Modern biotechnology (1950 onwards): Discovery of DNA, Recombinant DNA technology, genetically modified organisms, animal cloning and stem cell research
3.1. Ancient biotechnology (Pre 1800)
Most of the discoveries in biotechnology in the ancient period before 1800 were mainly based on the common observations of nature. The discovery of agriculture and the method of storing more viable and productive seeds for agricultural practices was possibly one of the first uses of biotechnology by humans. Ancient humans were hunters and food gatherers but agriculture made it possible for humans to settle at places where farming conditions were the optimum e.g. availability of water, sunlight, and fertile land. Domestication of wild animals was a similar practice which made it possible for humans to quit hunting away from their homes. Domestication of plants started more than 10,000 years ago when humans started using plants and plant products as a reliable source of food. Rice, barley, and wheat were among the first domesticated plants. Selective domestication and breeding of wild animals were the beginning of observation and application of biotechnology principles. Around 250 BC, The Greeks started practicing crop rotation for maximum soil fertility and high agricultural
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This is the phase of biotechnology when people started providing the scientific background to many of the common observations. A Dutch tradesman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632 –1723), while working in his draper’s shop observed minute organisms in the fabric using a simple microscope. His microscopic observations also include the microbes from the plaque between his own teeth and described his observations in a letter to the royal society, “I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort. . . had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water (or spittle) like a pike does through the water. The second sort oft-times spun round like a top. . . and these were far more in number”. Although Leeuwenhoek did not have a formal education in science, he used to design magnifying lenses and microscopes. Using his microscopes he discovered bacteria, protists, blood cells, sperm cells and many other microscopic organisms (Gest, 2004). He is considered as the first microbiologist and widely known as the Father of Microbiology. His work opened a whole new world of microscopic life to the scientific community. Around the same time, an English natural philosopher Robert Hooke (1635-1703) discovered empty pores in a piece of cork and named them as cells. He designed different
Modern biotechnology was born at the hands of American scientists Herb Boyer and Stain Cohen, when they developed “recombinant deoxyribonucleotide, (rDNA), [1] for medicinal purposes. Subsequently, biotechnologists started genetically engineering agricultural plants using this technology. A single gene responsible for a certain trait, from one organism (usually a bacterium) is selected altered and then ‘spliced” into the DNA of a plant to create an agricultural crop consisting of that...
Technological revolution was greatly contributed by the integration of personal computers. Computers did not only contribute to existing businesses, but also created new businesses and jobs. With the emergence of the internet was created a boundless source of information and a new way of communicating. Internet, being a fairly young communication medium, is has just started to influence our lives and its full impact has not been completely sensed. With the help of computer technology came numerous breakthroughs in genetics. Discoveries in the field led to development of new medical treatments and hybridization of animals and plants. With the introduction of DNA testing it became possible to identify individuals’ relationships and aided in criminal investigations. However, certain new scientific directions became subjects of great controversy; one of which is stem cell
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
Although humans have altered the genomes of species for thousands of years through artificial selection and other non-scientific means, the field of genetic engineering as we now know it did not begin until 1944 when DNA was first identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty (Stem Cell Research). In the following decades two more important discoveries occurred, first the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and next the 1973 discovery by Cohen and Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique which allowed the successful transfer of DNA into another organism. A year later Rudolf Jaenisch created the world’s first transgenic animal by introducing foreign DNA into a mouse embryo, an experiment that would set the stage for modern genetic engineering (Stem Cell Research). The commercialization of genetic engineering began largely in 1976 wh...
Watson, J. D., Gilman, M., Witkowski, J., Zoller, M. (1992). Recombinant DNA. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a scientist and was best known for his contributions to microbiology; he received the title of "the Father of Microbiology” and dedicated many years of his life to improve the microscope in order to attain incredible heights of precision of the microscopic lenses. He produced magnifications from up to 275X, with a resolving power of up to 1.4 µm. Moreover, he presented his findings from the material of animals and vegetables in extraordinary detail as well as being the first to observe a glimpse of bacteria that he found in water; the first illustration of the bacteria is demonstrated in a representation by Leeuwenhoek in the 1683 “Philosophical Transactions” publication. In this publication, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his observations of the inside of an old man’s mouth. He found "an unbelievably great company of living animalcules [Latin for ‘little animals’], a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort... bent their body into curves in going forwards. . . Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water... seemed to be alive." These were among the first observations on living bacteria ever recorded.
The birth of genetic engineering and recombinant DNA began in Stanford University, in the year 1970 (Hein). Biochemistry and medicine researchers were pursuing separate research pathways, yet these pathways converged to form what is now known as biotechnology (Hein). The biochemistry department was, at the time, focusing on an animal virus, and found a method of slicing DNA so cleanly that it would reform and go on to infect other cells. (Hein) The medical department focused on bacteria and developed a microscopic molecular messenger, that could not only carry a foreign “blueprint”, or message, but could also get the bacteria to read and copy the information. (Hein) One concept is needed to understand what happened at Stanford: how a bacterial “factory” turns “on” or “off”. (Hein) When a cell is dividing or producing a protein, it uses promoters (“on switches”) to start the process and terminators (“off switches”) to stop the process. (Hein) To form proteins, promoters and terminators are used to tell where the protein begins and where it ends. (Hein) In 1972 Herbert Boyer, a biochemist, provided Stanford with a bacterial enzyme called Eco R1. (Hein) This enzyme is used by bacteria to defend themselves against bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses. (Hein) The biochemistry department used this enzyme as a “molecular scalpel”, to cut a monkey virus called SV40. (Hein) What the Stanford researchers observed was that, when they did this, the virus reformed at the cleaved site in a circular manner. It later went on to infect other cells as if nothing had happened. (Hein) This proved that EcoR1 could cut the bonding sites on two different DNA strands, which could be combined using the “sticky ends” at the sites. (Hein). The contribution towards genetic engineering from the biochemistry department was the observations of EcoR1’s cleavage of
Reading up information and searching for clues (which were not extremely easy), turns out to have broadened my knowledge on Nature and Biomimicry itself and that there are so many people already using wind turbines to harvest the winds energy and know how the world can be saved. Therefore I have come to the conclusion and have seen that my hypothesis has been proven right.
It address the questions that are at the center of the medical field, such as what it means to be human, the role of technology in health care, and the boundaries of treatments involving advances in technology. Although human enhancement appears to have several positive affects, the negative affects are also great in number. Neither can be overlooked since this technology has the power to not only improve humanity, but also bring it to an all time low. By considering the factors that play into the outcomes of biotechnology, it is possible to answer the pressing questions at hand and to determine the circumstances in which biotechnology could result in beneficial
3. Macer, DRJ. 1990. Shaping Genes: Ethics, Law and Science of Using New Genetic Technology in Medicine and Agriculture. Obtained from the WWW: http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/SG14.html
Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, and biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years with accelerated discoveries and insight’s over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be the most important and describe their significance to society, heath, and the culture of modern life.
Since school days the terms like cell, genes, DNA, protein intrigued me a lot and helped me in realizing the dream of pursuing a career in Biotechnology field that has been making many remarkable achievements. The passion towards biological sciences made me to take B.TECH in Biotechnology in Dr. M.G.R. University.
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...
The origin of the biological term cell came from Robert Hooke in 1662. He observed tiny compartments in the cork of a mature tree and gave them the Latin name “cellulae”, which translates into “small rooms”. In the late 1680s, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek was the first scientist to actually lay eyes on a cell. Before, there had been theories of “cells” but no one had the technology to see something so microscopic yet. Van Leeuwenhoek ran a draper 's shop and wanted to see the quality of the thread, better than the magnifying lenses available at that time. Therefore, he began to develop an interest in lens-making, with an interest already in microscopes and a familiarity with glass