Biotechnology
Use of living cells or organisms to produce materials useful to people.
● -> using bacteria to make cheese and yogurt;
● Using microbes to produce antibiotics and alcohol;
● Using Yeast to produce beer and alcohol.
Pasteur can be seen as the father of biotechnology.
-> ancient origins:
● Egypts mixed different types of plants
Traditional
-> use of organisms in order to produce chemicals.
Modern
-> obtained in laboratories.
Recombinant DNA
DNA molecules made in the laboratory using at least 2 different sources of DNA.
The first one was made in 1973 using plasmids from Escherichia Coli-> the cut plasmids
were mixed with ligase to form recombinant DNA. They were inserted into e. Coli, some are
resistant to both antibiotics.
● DNA ligase
● Restriction enzymes
-> used together to cut DNA into fragments and splice them together forming new
combinations.
Recombinant dna technology is very complex:
1. Identification of the gene
2. Cutting and isolation of the gene from the dna molecule
3. Cohesion of the gene with a dna vector
4. Transfer of the gene to a recipient cell.
Tools of biotechnology were discovered in the 70s-> restriction enzymes, gel
electrophoresis, PCR.
They are used in farmaceutica, agricultural field, medical field.
1. Restriction enzymes
Also called forbici intelligenti.
They recognise specific DNA sequences (restriction sites) of nucleotides to produce specific
cut.
At the end of the 60s was found that some bacteria defended themselves from virus
infections by producing specific enzymes (restriction enzymes) cutting the extraneous DNA
molecule and reducing them into smaller non infectious fragments.
-> Ecori: the first one discovered in Escherichia coli, it uses the enzymes to cut
bacteriophage DNA. When the viral dna is inside the bacterium, it idrolizza it through
restriction enzymes. The bacterium protects its dna with some specific molecules and kills
