The Concept Of Plant Biotechnology

Key words: Phylogeny, Taxonomy, Biodiversity, Plant Biotechnology, plant Genetic engineering, Benefits, Bioinformatics, Plant breeding, Plant GMO, benefits of plant GMO, Plant reproduction, Edible plants.

Report Phylogeny is the evolutionary tree that connects numerous different biological species under one common ancestor. It is constructed based on their genetic similarities and physical differences. The origin of life started about 4 billion years ago, with the first ever single celled microbe, consisting of an enclosed membrane and DNA strand, known as the prokaryote. When we are studying biology, it is very important to understand the phylogeny, because it tells us that all the species on earth originated from a single cell, through evolution. Next is taxonomy, which is the naming and classification of different groups of organisms based on their characteristics, so that they can be easily identified.

There are about 8.7 million species discovered so far on earth that includes microbes, plants and animal species. However, this number is uncertain by 1.3 million (Sweetlove, 2011) When we study plants, we refer them by their scientific name or binomial nomenclature because it allows us to connect and communicate with other peoples in a more specified manner. As the class proceeded, the professor talked about biodiversity. It is the different varieties of life form on earth. It tells us the interaction and dependency of one organism with another and also with the ecosystem. He emphasized on the importance of biodiversity in his slides, because it enhances the ecosystem by providing with a sustainable environment for the existence of millions of species. No matter how small they are, each of them have a key niche to perform. Due to a high variety of different species, it ensures a steady natural growth and also prevents the ecosystem from natural disasters. Genetic diversity, which is the difference in the genome resulting in different species, is also responsible for varieties in species. We are very dependent on our ecosystem to acquire natural services such as nutrition, medicine, oil, wood, rubber etc.

There are about 391,000 vascular plant species in the world, with 139 species to have been assembled whole genome, and about 31, 128 species that have a documented usage for medicine, food, gene source, fuel, animal food etc. (RBG Kew, 2016) In this era of biology, there had been huge progress on research due to the advancement of technology and the increasing amount of funds associated in the research by government. Plant biotechnology, is the implementation of biological plant species with technology, to manufacture desired products and services such as fermented foods, agriculture, medicine etc., for mankind. In previous times, living organisms were modified for desired trait by selective breeding of improved ones. It was later known as hybridization and artificial selection. Plant breeding is also a similar technique that includes the modification of plant traits for desired characters. But in the modern era, better advanced technologies were used such as genetic engineering or tissue cloning to get highly specified products. Examples of biotechnology includes, fermentation, tissue culture, bio-reactor, Xeno – transplanting, artificial organ technology, bio mimics, cyborg etc.

Biotechnology leads to fascinating fields such as bioengineering, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics, tissue engineering, biopharmaceutical engineering and genetic engineering. In this report, I will explain some of the terms with my own understandings. Genetic engineering is the modification of the organism’s genetic alignment, by the introduction of a gene, to express certain protein or other desired phenotypes using biotechnology. Plant genetic engineering includes only plants as the target organism. The gene is either extracted from a host organism by using recombinant DNA, restriction enzymes etc., or by artificial synthesis. When an organism is injected with the extracted genes, it will start to express the same character as the host organism for that gene, and the organism will be known as genetically modified organism (GMO). Bioinformatics is a process that combines biological data with modern software, to analyze and interpret them more easily. Large amount of data, such as an organism’s genome can also be stored digitally. Other application of bioinformatics also includes, clinical trial data, textual data from medline, chemical compound data, biological assay data, 3D structure of protein and also in pharmaceutical and agricultural research.

Plant genetic engineering have numerous benefits and it was also emphasized in the slides. Mass production of vaccines as preventive medicine can be obtained from plant species such as tobacco, tomatoes, papayas, bananas etc. It can reduce food poising substances such as cyanides in cassava. It can also eat up large compounds such as SOX and NOX and utilize it for its nutrition. Bioreactors with engineered plant cells are also used to biosynthesize pharmaceutical materials without any induced effects on medicinal plants in natural forests. Another important application is to deactivate land mines by using transgenic plants. They have the capability to decompose explosive chemicals. Unlike animals, plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

Sexual fertilization in angiosperm includes the fusion of gametes from androecium and gynoecium. Asexual reproduction includes normal mitotic division to form the embryo sac in the form of budding, sporulation, fission etc. However, ferns, mosses, bryophytes have different reproductive cycle than angiosperms. There are about 80,000 species in different taxa and among them 300 species are seen to be heavily invested and cultivated for breeding and production. And we use an average of 30 species daily in our life. The slides from the morning session, improved my basic knowledge regarding biology. It summaries the up to date biological techniques and the importance of it for our society. It also helped me broaden my perspective towards the biological applications.

References:

RBG Kew. (2016). The State of the World’s Plants Report . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Sfumato Foundation.

Sweetlove, L. (2011). Number of species on Earth tagged at 8.7 million. nature, doi:10.1038/news.2011.498 .