Plant Biotechnology, Volume 1

Principles, Techniques, and Applications

Bishun Deo Prasad, Sangita Sahni, Prasant Kumar, Mohammed Wasim Siddiqui, Bishun Deo Prasad, Sangita Sahni, Prasant Kumar, Mohammed Wasim Siddiqui

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351819503
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Botany
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book, first of this new two-volume set, provides an informative tour of the basics of biotechnology to recent advances in biotechnology. Knowledge of new and fresh approaches is a prerequisite to solving plant biological problems, and to this end, the editors have brought together a group of contributors who address the most recent techniques and their applications in plant biotechnology. The chapters discuss some recent techniques such as TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes), advances in molecular techniques to study diversity, protein purification, and methods and analysis in protein-protein interaction detection. The volume also covers molecular markers and QTL mapping, including four chapters that deal with different molecular markers, development of mapping populations, and association mapping for dissecting the genetic basis of complex traits in plants in sufficient detail.

The knowledge of biotechnology techniques and their applications will be valuable for researchers and scientists as well as for the many students engaged in plant biotechnology studies.

PART I

History, Scope, and Importance of Plant Biotechnology

CHAPTER 1

HISTORY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

SUHAIL MUZAFFAR¹* and BISHUN DEO PRASAD²*

¹ National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India

² Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India

* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

CONTENTS

Abstract

1.1 Overview

1.2 Biotechnology Time Lines

1.3 Periods of Biotechnology History

Keywords

References

ABSTRACT

The science of ‘biotechnology’ has received enormous attention recently due to its unlimited potential to benefit humanity. Biotechnology uses biological materials to create novel products for agricultural, pharmaceutical, medical, and environmental applications. The history of biotechnology begins with zymotechnology, which originated with a focus on brewing techniques. By the start of 20^th century, zymotechnology began to expand and the concept of industrial fermentation gave rise to biotechnology. After domestication of crops and animals, humans began to make cheese, curd, and wine using simple fermentation techniques. Cheese is considered as one of the first products of biotechnology, as it was prepared by adding rennet (an enzyme) to sour milk. During the 1940s, the discovery of penicillin was a dramatic event. Although discovered in England, it was produced industrially in the U.S. using a deep fermentation process. Penecillin was one of the most important success stories of last century and doctors called it a “miracle drug”. The introduction of principles of genetic engineering brought biotechnology to the forefront of science in society. With the development of synthetic human insulin, the biotechnology industry started to grow rapidly. Genetic engineering remains the centre of scientific discussion in modern world especially with ever emerging fields of gene therapy, stem cell technology, and genetically modified organisms. Although most of these scientific advancements are very recent but the service of biotechnology to society began centuries ago.

1.1 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.” The history of biotechnology started hundreds of years ago with the advent of fermentation when humans learned to brew beer. But, with the introduction of genetic engineering, biotechnology came to the forefront of modern day science. Discovery of DNA, development of synthetic human insulin, and genetically modified organisms were the milestones in biotechnology as it introduced genetic engineering in our day-to-day life. During the 1980s, biotechnology grew into one of the most promising industries of the time. Till this date, biotechnology has remained a hot topic among scientists, lawmakers, and the general public for both breakthrough technologies as well as various controversies like animal cloning, stem cell research, and gene therapy. The developments in the field of biotechnology can be divided into three different eras: (1) ancient biotechnology, (2) classical biotechnology, and (3) modern biotechnology (Verma et al., 2011).

1.2 BIOTECHNOLOGY TIME LINES

Timeline of key events occurred in biotechnology has been summarized in Table 1.1.

TABLE 1.1 Biotechnology Time Lines.

Periods	Important Discoveries/Events
6000 BC	• Sumerians and Babylonians used yeast to make beer.
4000 BC	• Baking leavened bread using yeast was discovered by the Egyptians.
320 BC	• Aristotle stated that all inheritance comes from the father.
1000	• Spontaneous generation hypothesis was proposed.
1673	• Anton van Leeuwenhoek described the role of microorganisms in fermentation.
1701	• Giacomo Pylarini practiced “inoculation” in which children were intentionally inoculated with smallpox to prevent a serious case later in life.
1809	• Heat sterilization of food was by devised by Nicolas Appert.
1856	• A technique for keeping animal organs alive outside the body, by pumping blood through them was discovered by Karl Ludwig.
	• Charles Darwin (1809–82) hypothesized that animal populations adapt their forms over time to best exploit the environment, a process he referred to as “natural selection.”
1859	• Louis Pasteur (1859) asserted that microbes are responsible for fermentation.
	• Charles Darwin proposed theory of “natural selection.”
1863	• Louis Pasteur invented the process of pasteurization.
1865	• Gregor Mendel presented his laws of heredity.
1870	• Walther Flemming discovered mitosis.
1871	• DNA was isolated from the sperm of trout found in the Rhine River.
1873–76	• Robert Koch investigated anthrax and developed techniques to view, grow, and stain organisms.
1880	• Louis Pasteur developed a method of attenuating or weakening pathogen agent of chicken cholera, so it would immunize and not cause disease.
1884	• Koch’s postulates for testing whether a microbe is the causal agent of a disease.
	• Pasteur developed a rabies vaccine.
	• Christian Gram discovered Gram staining.
1900	• Rediscovery of Mendelian work by Hugo de Vries, Erich Von Tschermak, and Carl Correns.
1901	• Shigetane Ishiwatari, a Japanese biologist, first isolated the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) responsible for killing silkworms.
1902	• Human genetics born.
1905–08	• William Bateson and others demonstrated that some genes modify the action of other genes.
1907	• Researches on fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan demonstrated that chromosomes have a definite function in heredity, establish mutation theory, and lead to a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of heredity.
1909	• Wilhelm Johannsen coined the term “gene.”
1910	• Thomas Morgan established that genes are carried on chromosomes.
1911	• Thomas Hunt Morgan began to map the positions of genes on chromosomes of the fruit fly.
	• Ernst Berliner isolated a bacterium that had killed a Mediterranean flour moth and rediscovered Bt and named it Bacillus thuringiensis.
1912	• Lawrence Bragg discovered that X-rays can be used to study the molecular structure of simple crystalline substances.
1915	• Berliner reported the existence of a crystal within Bt.
1926	• “The theory of the gene” published by Thomas Morgan.
1928	• Fredrick Griffiths noticed that a rough type of bacterium changed to a smooth type when an unknown “transforming principle” from the smooth type was present. Sixteen years later, Oswald Avery identified that “transforming principle” as DNA.
1938	• The term “Molecular Biology” was coined by Warren Weaver.
1941	• George Beadle and Edward Tatum discovered “one-gene-one-enzyme” hypothesis.
1943–53	• Cortisone (a 21-carbon steroid hormone), the first biotech product was manufactured in large amounts.
1944	• Waksman isolated streptomycin, an effective antibiotic for tuberculosis (TB).
1945–50	• Isolated animal cell cultures were grown in laboratories for the first time.
1947	• Barbara McClintock first reported on “transposable elements,” known today as “jumping genes.”
1950	• Discovery of Chargaff’s Rules.
1953	• Double helix structure of DNA was published in Nature by James Watson and Francis Crick.
1953	• Gey developed the HeLa human cell line.
1957	• Francis Crick and George Gamov demonstrated “central dogma.”
1962	• Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for discovery of the double helical structure of DNA.
1966	• Genetic code cracked by Marshall Nirenberg, Heinrich Mathaei, and Severo Ochoa.
1967	• Arthur Kornberg and Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University discovered “the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).”
1972	• Formation of first recombinant DNA molecule by Paul Berg.
1973	• Formation of world’s first transgenic animal by Rudolf Jaenisch by introducing foreign DNA into its embryo created a transgenic mouse.
1978	• Herbert Boyer and his coworker constructed a synthetic version of the human insulin gene and transforme...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgment
• Part I: History, Scope, and Importance of Plant Biotechnology
• Part II: Plant Tissue Culture
• Part III: Techniques in Molecular Biology
• Part IV: Molecular Markers and QTL Mapping
• Index