Transgenic Plants & Animals

• Transgenic plants that can tolerate herbicides, insects or viruses, or produce modified fruit or flowers are being grown and tested in outdoor test plots since 1987.
• Copies of genes for these selected traits have been transferred to the plants by genetic engineering techniques from other unrelated plants, bacteria, or viruses.
• Corn plants that produce an insecticide protein to resist European corn borers and tomatoes that can ripen longer on the vine before shipping are examples of transgenic plants that have been developed.
• Another area of environmental protection is the application of biological controls for using biopesticides.
• Bacillus thuringiensis has been used to selectively control certain insect pests. In this case, the whole organism is marketed.
• Another biotechnology market is in transgenic animals are designed to help researchers diagnose and treat human disease. Several companies have designed and are testing transgenic mammals that produce important pharmaceuticals in their milk. Products such as insulin, growth hormone, and tissue plasminogen activator. Which are currently produed by fermentation of transgenic bacteria may soon be obtained from the milk of transgenic cows, sheep, or goats.

Tissue Culture and DNA Technology

• The basic technologies used in different areas of biotechnology applications and are similar they could be grouped under the two general headings of tissue culture techniques and DNA technology.
• The former operates at above the cell level (with its components- membranes, chloroplasts, mitochondria , etc), and implies growing cells, tissues and organs in controlled conditions. The second involves the manipulation of genes that determine the cell (and therefore plant, animal or micro-organisms) characteristics, which mean working at the DNA level; the isolation of genes, their recombination and expression in new forms and their transfer into appropriate cells.