Recent Innovations in Biotechnology Chapter Notes | Biotechnology for Class 12 - NEET PDF Download

Introduction

• Biotechnological innovations have significantly advanced over the past decade, impacting agriculture, medical science, environment, and energy sectors.
• Key innovations include genetically modified (GM) crops, advanced diagnostics, oil-eating bacteria, lab-grown human organs for transplants, and biofuels to reduce carbon footprints.
• These innovations enhance cost-effectiveness and resource efficiency, particularly in sustainable biogas energy technology.
• Synthetic biology enables lab-grown plants and meat, genetically tailored for specific taste and appearance.

Environmental Biotechnology

• Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s, industrial growth has led to environmental degradation, polluting air, water, and soil with heavy metals, pesticides, dyes, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, and micro-pollutants.
• Biotechnology provides eco-friendly solutions using natural or genetically engineered biological systems to address environmental issues.
• Key approaches include bioremediation (waste treatment, degradation, vermi-technology), prevention of environmental problems, detection and monitoring of contaminants, and genetic engineering.
• The focus here is on prevention, specifically through biofuel production, biodegradation, and the manufacture of biodegradable products.

Biofuel

• Biofuels are fuels derived from biological products, including living organisms or biological waste like landfill waste or recycled vegetable oil.
• Specific crops such as soybeans, jatropha, pongamia, palm oil, and algae are cultivated for biofuel production, known as biofuels or agrofuels.
• Biofuels are categorized into biodiesel, bioalcohol, biogas, and biomass based on their characteristics.
• Biodiesel: Produced from animal fats, vegetable oils, waste cooking oil, soybean, rapeseed, jatropha, mustard, flax, sunflower, palm oil, canola, hemp, field pennycress, Pongamia pinnata, or algae via trans-esterification.
• Biodiesel can be used pure or blended (e.g., 5% blend in Europe) and is compatible with regular diesel engines without modifications.
• Biodiesel contains higher hydrogen and oxygen and less carbon than fossil fuels, improving combustion and reducing particulate emissions from unburnt carbon.
• Bioalcohol: Includes bioethanol, produced from wheat, corn, sugarcane, molasses, sugar beets, potatoes, or fruit waste through fermentation.
• Bioalcohol production involves releasing sugars from starch or cellulose, followed by microbial fermentation, distillation, and drying.
• Ethanol blending in petrol varies globally (2% to 30%), with India permitting up to 10% ethanol blending, aiming for 5% nationwide as per Bureau of Indian Standards.
• Ethanol reduces fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions but faces challenges like reduced engine efficiency, difficulty starting engines, sputtering, aluminium oxidation in carburetors, and steel rusting, requiring engine modifications.
• Algae (micro and macro) are explored for biofuel due to ease of cultivation, renewability, and ability to produce both bioalcohol and biodiesel without competing with food crops.
• Algae-based biofuel production is not yet cost-effective, and research continues to address this challenge.
• Biogas: Produced from organic materials like dung, night soil, manure, crops, organic industrial waste, and wastewater, primarily consisting of methane and carbon dioxide.
• Biogas is generated through anaerobic digestion by bacteria in an anaerobic digester, optimized for microbial growth to enhance breakdown efficiency.
• Biogas supports waste removal, environmental management, and energy production, with its use expected to double in the next five years.
• In India, the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme has installed approximately 49.3 lakh biogas plants, incorporating technologies like cryogenic separation, in situ upgrading, hydrate separation, and biological methods.
• Biogas plants provide sustainable cooking gas and organic bio-manure for households, reducing indoor air pollution and LPG costs.
• Challenges include imperfect production methods and vehicle engine corrosion when used as a biofuel, increasing maintenance costs.
• Biomass: Solid biofuels like wood, sawdust, coal, grass cuttings, domestic refuse, charcoal, agricultural waste, non-food energy crops, and dried manure are used directly in stoves, furnaces, or hearths.
• Biomass such as sawdust and wood chips is often converted into pellets, and cow dung cakes are a popular solid biofuel.
• Biomass combustion emits pollutants like particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), posing health risks.

Biodegradation

• Biodegradation is nature’s waste management system, breaking down materials like yard waste and crude oil to maintain a clean environment.
• Population growth has increased non-biodegradable waste, such as plastics and fluorinated carbons, which take centuries to decompose.
• Microbes, including bacteria that degrade plastics, have been identified and enhanced to accelerate decomposition, though this technology is still developing.
• Bioplastics: Biodegradable materials made from plant sources like leaves, bamboo, wood chips, corn starch, seaweeds, and natural biopolymers (polysaccharides, proteins, lignin, natural rubber) are alternatives to plastics and styrofoam.
• Bioplastics reduce reliance on fossil fuel-based plastics, which consume less than 10% of oil but have significant environmental impacts.
• In 1999, biopolymer production from genetically modified plant seeds and leaves became economically competitive with petrochemical polymers.
• Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a biodegradable plastic, is commercially produced via fermentation with Alcaligenes eutropus and in transgenic plants like Arabidopsis, where PHB globules form in chloroplasts without affecting plant growth.
• Large-scale PHB production using plants like populus is limited by high costs compared to synthetic polymers.
• Biotechnology in Paper Industry: Pulp making involves cooking wood chips with caustic soda and sulfur to separate lignin from cellulose, a process improved by biopulping.
• Biopulping uses lignin-degrading fungi to enhance pulp making, reducing energy and chemical use, improving paper quality, and minimizing environmental impact.
• Biobleaching employs enzymes like xylanase to reduce chlorine use in bleaching, further lowering environmental impact.
• Genetically modified trees with reduced lignin content are being developed to simplify pulp making.
• Non-wood materials like bagasse, bamboo, jute, hemp, esparto, flax, grass, kenaf, or reed are increasingly used in paper production to reduce deforestation, with biotechnology enhancing their processing.
• Biotechnology in Oil Recovery: Microbial technologies enhance Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) by extracting residual oil after primary and secondary production phases.
• Bacteria that feed on hydrocarbons are used to clean oil spills, with genetically engineered Pseudomonas “superbugs” developed for this purpose.

Bioremediation

• Bioremediation uses microorganisms to reduce toxicity from chemical pollutants, including heavy metals (As, Cr, Hg, Cd, Zn) in soil or water.
• Key principles for bioremediation include the pollutant’s potential for biological transformation to less toxic products, bioavailability to microorganisms, and efficiency of bioactivity.
• Advances in molecular genetics and enzyme-tailoring through recombinant DNA-RNA technologies facilitate the removal of heavy metals and toxic chemicals from contaminated sites.

Plant Biotechnology

• Plant biotechnology, including GM technology and molecular-assisted breeding, has developed products that enhance crop yields sustainably.
• Applications include pharmaceuticals, recombinant therapeutic proteins, plant-made pharmaceuticals, transgenic plants, artificial seeds, plant-made vaccines, and antibodies (plantibodies).
• Genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9 is being explored for crop improvement.

Innovations in Plant Biotechnology Through Gm Crops

• GM crops are adopted in 29 countries, with soybeans, maize, cotton, and canola being the major crops.
• Initial transgenic technology focused on weed and pest control, while second-generation GM crops address abiotic stress tolerance, improved nutrition, sexual incompatibilities, and gene introduction from unrelated organisms (bacteria, fungi, plants, viruses).
• Herbicide Tolerant GM Crops: Weeds like Striga reduce crop yields by competing for light, water, and nutrients.
• Non-selective herbicides like glyphosate harm crops, but biotechnology enables over-production of herbicide target enzymes in crop chloroplasts, making crops insensitive to herbicides.
• A modified Agrobacterium gene encoding a glyphosate-resistant enzyme has been introduced into crops like canola, soybean, corn, and cotton, commercialized as Roundup Ready GM crops.
• Disease Resistant GM Crops: Crops face losses from viruses, fungi, bacteria, insects, mites, and nematodes.
• Viruses: Transgenic technology introduces viral coat protein genes to confer resistance, acting like a vaccine, against viruses like yellow crookneck disease in squash, potato mosaic virus, potato leaf roll virus, barley yellow dwarf virus, and papaya ringspot virus.
• Fungi: Fungal diseases cause wilting, mold, rusts, blotches, scabs, and rot, necessitating alternatives to fungicides like methyl bromide.
• Defensins, antimicrobial proteins from insects, mammals, crustaceans, fish, and plants, show antifungal activity; alfalfa defensin in transgenic potatoes resists Verticillium dahlia.
• Resveratrol from white grapevine protects against Botrytis cinerea in wheat and barley; Rpi-vnt1.1 from Solanum venturi resists late blight in potatoes; wheat oxalate oxidase resists chestnut blight; and insect chitinase resists apple scab.
• Bacteria: Bacterial infections cause lesions, soft rots, yellowing, wilting, stunting, tumors, scabs, or blights, reducing yields.
• Lysozyme genes in potatoes resist blackleg and soft rot (Erwinia carotovora), and genes from E. carotovora and Pseudomonas syringae resist wildfire disease in rice.
• Insects: Bt crops express Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal Cry proteins, which bind to insect gut receptors, killing pests.
• Bt cotton is commercially cultivated in India since 2002, and Bt brinjal was approved in Bangladesh in 2014.
• Pyramiding (stacking multiple genes) addresses pests like fall-army worm; stacked Bt and drought-tolerance genes (B. subtilis cspB) produce hybrid maize.
• Plant Nematodes: Transgenic strategies target nematodes in bananas, soybeans, rice, and potatoes, with potato genes achieving up to 70% resistance.
• Genetic markers enable breeding of resistant wild strains with domesticated varieties, as seen in soybean resistance.
• Stress Resistant GM Crops: Arabidopsis and tobacco with mannitol withstand high salinity and show enhanced germination and biomass.
• Rice with barley embryogenesis abundant protein gene tolerates drought and salinity.
• Soybeans and wheat with sunflower HaHB4 gene (EcoSoy and EcoWheat) are drought-tolerant and herbicide-resistant, with wheat yielding up to 20% more.
• GM maize CIEA-9 in Mexico uses antisense RNA to silence trehalose expression, requiring 20% less water and withstanding higher temperatures.
• GM Crops for Enhanced Paper Quality: Arabidopsis with coenzyme A-ligase has 45% less lignin; eucalyptus with an Arabidopsis thaliana protein gene produces 20% more wood and matures faster (5.5 vs. 7 years).
• GM Crops for Improved Product: Potatoes with starch synthesis gene have 60% more starch, reducing fat uptake during frying.
• Maize and soybean with stacked genes tolerate glyphosate and 2,4-D-choline herbicides.
• Arctic Gala apples with non-browning genes resist browning.
• Biofortified GM Crops: Golden Rice with phytoene synthase, carotene desaturase, and lycopene beta-cyclase genes synthesizes beta-carotene, a vitamin A source.
• Soybeans with downregulated fatty acid desaturase have higher oleic acid content.
• Tomatoes with antisense polygalacturonase have increased shelf life.

Genome Engineering Technology: Application of Crispr-Cas9

• CRISPR-Cas9 uses guide RNA and Cas9 to edit genes in plants, developed at the University of California San Diego for drought and disease-resistant crops.
• It bypasses Mendelian genetics by transferring specific traits from one parent to offspring, improving nutritional quality, yield, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in crops like rice, tomato, and soybean.
• CRISPR-Cas9 is faster, simpler, and more precise than traditional genetic manipulation, targeting multiple genes for beneficial traits.
• Challenges include off-target effects, low efficiency, regulatory issues, and safety concerns, with ongoing efforts to improve on-target efficiency and modify Cas9.

Regenerative Medicine

• Regenerative medicine is a multidisciplinary field aiming to replace cells and organs to restore function lost due to degeneration, trauma, or disease, and protect vulnerable cells from death.
• Organ transplantation includes autografts (same individual), allografts (same species, non-identical), and xenografts (different species, e.g., pig valves in human hearts).
• Organs like liver, kidney, and pancreas have limited regeneration capacity, making stem cell technology vital for replacing damaged cells.

Stem Cell Technology

• Stem cells self-assemble into complex structures, forming organized cell clusters in hydrogels like Matrigel with suitable exogenous factors.
• Stem cell-derived organoids are 3D self-organized tissue models serving as tissue and organ substitutes.
• Organoids, ultra-small 3D tissue cultures, are derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and adult stem cells (ASCs) by mimicking tissue development and homeostasis.
• Organoids replicate organ complexity or express specific cell subsets, e.g., mesenchymal stem cell shape influences differentiation into osteoblasts (wide spreading) or adipocytes (round shape).
• Organoids model spatial organization, cell-matrix, and cell-cell interactions, and physiological functions of tissue-specific cells.
• They bridge in vitro and in vivo systems, enabling manipulation to mimic in vivo physiology for long-term cultures and signaling maintenance.
• Engineering organoids aims to improve in vivo tissue mimics, achieve high-throughput formats, and support multi-tissue organoid systems like human-on-a-chip.
• Bioengineering enhances understanding of cell behavior and organization in organoid formation.
• Monolayer cell cultures provide uniform nutrient access, unlike in vivo tissues where cell position affects nutrient availability.
• 3D cell culture systems better predict in vivo drug responses compared to monolayer cultures.
• Tumor spheres model cancer stem cell expansion, while organoids exhibit ordered self-assembly dependent on a matrix, unlike spheroids.
• Organoids are superior in vitro models for organ development, disease modeling, drug penetration, screening, and toxicity testing compared to 2D or 3D co-cultures.
• Spheroid formation methods include suspension culture, non-adherent surfaces, hanging drops, and microfluidics.
• 3D cultures are more realistic but expensive, time-consuming, and require expert handling and careful planning due to limited automation and reproducibility.
• Advancements include cell-based therapy, polymer and material science, nanotechnology, bioengineering, and 3D bioprinting for artificial organs.
• Clinical trials include tissue-engineered vascular grafts, trachea, and cardiac patches.
• Bioprinting: Uses CT or MRI to determine diseased organ dimensions, creating tissue-engineered scaffolds with biopolymers, cells, and growth factor-loaded nanoparticles via 3D bioprinting.
• Carticel therapy expands autologous chondrocytes in vitro for cartilage injury repair.
• laViv uses autologous fibroblasts for cosmetic facial wrinkle removal.
• Dermagraft, an allogenic fibroblast dermal substitute, treats diabetic ulcers.
• Autologous platelets from peripheral blood aid wound healing.

Nanobiotechnology

• Nanoscience studies materials at the nanoscale (less than one micron, 10^-9 to 10^-12 meters), while nanotechnology applies these materials.
• Nanobiotechnology applies nanotechnology in biotechnology, with nanomedicine focusing on diagnosis and therapy.
• Converting bulk materials to nanoscale alters their physicochemical, biological, mechanical, optical, and electronic properties for diverse applications.
• Gold nanoparticles change color based on size (ruby red <30 nm, pink up to 100 nm, darker for larger sizes) and increase surface area and reactivity exponentially.
• Nanoparticles are made from inorganic (metal: iron oxide, gold, silver, copper, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, cadmium, selenium; non-metal: silicon oxide, calcium phosphate, ceramic) and organic (natural polymers: chitosan, alginate, cellulose, lignin; synthetic polymers: PCL, PLA, PLGA; proteins: albumin, gelatin; lipids: cholesterol, fatty acids, phospholipids, liposomes) materials.
• Cadmium-selenium (CdSe) nanocrystals, or quantum dots (QDs), fluoresce in different colors based on size, used in fluorescence-based diagnostics.

Application of Nanotechnology

• Nanotechnology is an enabling technology for chemicals, textiles, consumer products, cosmetics, health (nanomedicine), energy, agriculture, industries, and the environment.
• Medicine (Nanomedicine): Nanoparticles or nanocarriers deliver drugs or biomolecules to diseased sites, enhancing bioavailability.
• The enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect allows small nanocarriers (20-30 nm) to accumulate in tumors through leaky endothelial gaps, as seen with paclitaxel-loaded albumin nanoparticles and liposomal doxorubicin for cancer therapy.
• Silver nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties are used in wound dressings.
• Cosmetics: Zinc oxide and titanium oxide nanoparticles protect against UV light in sunscreens; liposomal and nanoemulsion preparations enhance penetration of essential oils, vitamins, and biomolecules to prevent aging, reduce pigmentation, and provide other benefits.
• Agriculture and Food Packaging: Nanotechnology enables precision farming, enhancing nutrient absorption, and nano-pesticides reduce pesticide use while controlling plant diseases.
• Nanomaterials in food packaging extend preservation and storage; silver and iron nanoparticles disinfect livestock and poultry.
• Textile: Nanomaterials improve textiles with stain and water repellence, wrinkle-free features, fire retardancy, high tensile strength, durability, and textured surfaces.
• Nanotechnology imparts electrical conductivity to fibers, maintaining comfort and flexibility, and enables garments to sense external stimuli, regulate temperature, and potentially monitor health.
• Nanobiosensors: Nanotechnology revolutionizes sensor development for detecting biomarkers, enabling low-cost, sensitive point-of-care devices for bedside or rural testing with small sample volumes.
• The “Lab on a Chip” concept uses nanotechnology and microfluidics for simultaneous multi-test diagnostics.
• Nanotechnology offers immense potential for molecular imaging, drug delivery, gene therapy, biosensors, and biomarkers, but requires new regulations to address safety concerns in the body and environment.

Synthetic Biology

• Traditional biology uses a reductionist approach, studying organisms from whole to molecular levels (anatomy, histology, molecular biology, biochemistry).
• This approach has generated vast data, integrated through bioinformatics and systems biology into databases and computer models of tissues and metabolic pathways.
• In 2004, MIT introduced synthetic biology, an engineering approach to build organisms from scratch, chemically synthesizing chromosomes, mitochondria, nuclei, cells, tissues, or entire organisms.
• Synthetic biology designs biological components for specific functions, applying engineering principles to construct biomolecular networks, components, and pathways to reprogram organisms.
• It bridges biology and engineering, addressing cellular complexity to innovate biomolecular networks and pathways.
• Applications include biomanufacturing high-value biomolecules, diagnostics, therapeutics, cheaper drugs, eco-friendly fuels, and targeted therapies for superbugs and diseases like cancer.
• Long DNA synthesis allows editing plasmids in silico, saving sequences as text files (ATGC), and synthesizing recombinant vectors rapidly, as demonstrated by a fully functional yeast chromosome at Johns Hopkins University.
• Synthetic biology poses risks, such as creating new viruses or bioweapons, necessitating ethical practices and strict regulations.

Future Prospects

• Biotechnological innovations will drive future societal benefits, leveraging microbes, complex ecological systems, and biological knowledge in medicine, healthcare, food systems, industries, and smart materials.
• Microbial factories are being developed to synthesize chemicals, reducing pollution from chemical factories.
• Microbes are designed to degrade harmful chemicals into eco-friendly products for pollution cleanup.
• Synthesizing natural plant products in bacteria preserves plants from destruction.
• Bioremediation technologies for contaminated soils and groundwater include solid-phase biotreatment, slurry-phase treatment, in situ treatment, and combined biological, physical, and chemical treatments.
• Plant biotechnology, through GM technology and molecular-assisted breeding, enhances agricultural yields sustainably.
• Plant-made pharmaceuticals, or molecular pharming, offer cost-effective, needle-free solutions for tropical diseases in low-income countries.
• Non-food crops with sustainable management improve biomass feedstocks and biofuel, chemical, and biomaterial conversion processes.
• Medical biotechnology advances include regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, transplantation, stem cell research, nanobiotechnology, and synthetic biology.
• Nanobiotechnology brings nanoscale devices closer to reality, though safety concerns remain undefined.
• Synthetic biology could produce rubber, bioacrylic, surfactants, additives, and flavors in bacteria, transforming industries.
• India is a key player in the global vaccine market (DPT, BCG, measles) and developed low-cost diagnostics, interventions, and COVID-19 vaccines.
• The Draft National Biotech Development Strategy 2020-24 aims to foster a vibrant startup, entrepreneurial, and industrial ecosystem, connecting academia and industry to strengthen research and innovation.