Francais | English | Espanõl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biotechnology began without being known by the users. Early cultures also understood the importance of using natural processes to breakdown waste products into inert forms. From very early nomadic tribes to pre-urban civilizations it was common knowledge that given enough time organic waste products would be absorbed and eventually integrated into the soil. It was not until the advent of modern microbiology and chemistry that this process was fully understood and attributed to bacteria.

The most practical use of biotechnology, which is still present today, is the cultivations of plants to produce food suitable to humans. Agriculture has been theorized to have become the dominant way of producing food since the Neolithic Revolution. The processes and methods of agriculture have been refined by other mechanical and biological sciences since its inception. Through early biotechnology farmers were able to select the best suited and high-yield crops to produce enough food to support a growing population. Other uses of biotechnology were required as crops and fields became increasingly large and difficult to maintain. Specific organisms and organism byproducts were used to fertilize, restore nitrogen, and control pests. Throughout the use of agriculture farmers have inadvertently altered the genetics of their crops through introducing them to new environments, breeding them with other plants, and by using artificial selection. In modern times some plants are genetically modified to produce specific nutritional values or to be economical.

The process of Ethanol fermentation was also one of the first forms of biotechnology. Cultures such as those in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Iran developed the process of brewing which consisted of combining malted grains with specifics yeasts to produce alcoholic beverages. In this process the carbohydrates in the grains were broken down into alcohols such as ethanol. Later other cultures produced the process of Lactic acid fermentation which allowed the fermentation and preservation of other forms of food. Fermentation was also used in this time period to produce leavened bread. Although the process of fermentation was not fully understood until Louis Pasteur’s work in 1857, it is still the first use of biotechnology to convert a food source into another form.

Combinations of plants and other organisms were used as medications in many early civilizations. Since as early as 200 BC people began to use disabled or minute amounts of infectious agents to immunize themselves against infections. These and similar processes have been refined in modern medicine and have lead to many developments such as antibiotics, vaccines, and other methods of fighting sickness.

A more recent field in biotechnology is that of genetic engineering. Genetic modification has opened up many new fields of biotechnology and allowed the modification of plants, animals, and even humans on a molecular level.

[edit] Timeline of Notable Biotechnology Events

• 8000 BC – Collecting of seeds for replanting. Evidence that Mesopotamian people used selective breeding (artificial selection) practices to improve livestock.

• 6000 BC – Brewing beer, fermenting wine, baking bread with help of yeast.

• 4000 BC – Chinese made yogurt and cheese with lactic-acid-producing bacteria.

• 1500 AD – Plant collecting around the world.

• 1590 AD – The microscope is invented by Zacharias Janssen.

• 1675 AD – Microorganisms discovered (using first microscope).

• 1856 AD – Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance.

• 1862 AD – Pasteur discover the bacterial origin of fermentation.

• 1919 AD – Karl Ereky, a Hungarian agricultural engineer, first used the word biotechnology.

• 1928 AD – Alexander Fleming noticed that a certain mould could stop the development of bacterias.

• 1953 AD – James D. Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA.

• 1972 AD – The DNA composition of chimpanzees and gorillas is discovered to be 99% similar to that of humans.

• 1975 AD – Method for producing monoclonal antibody developed by Kohler and Milstein.

• 1980 AD –
  • Modern biotech is characterized by recombinant DNA technology. The prokaryote model, E. coli, is used to produce insulin and other medicine, in human form. (About 5% of diabetics are allergic to animal insulins available before).
  • A viable brewing yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1026 acts as a modifier of the microflora in the rumen of cows and digestive tract of horses).
  • AD The United States Supreme Court 447 U.S. 303 (1980) rules in favor of microbiologist Ananda Chakrabarty in the case of a USPTO request for a first patent granted to a genetically modified living organism (GMO) in history.

• 1984 AD – Nutrigenomics as applied science in animal nutrition.

• 1994 AD – FDA approves of the first GM food from Calgene: "Flavr Savr" tomato.

• 1997 AD – British scientists from the Roslin Institute report cloning a sheep called Dolly using DNA from two adult sheep cells. Ian Wilmut led the team that cloned Dolly.

• 2000 AD – Completion of a, "rough draft," of the genome in the Human Genome Project.

• 2002 AD – Researchers sequence the DNA of rice, the main food source for two-thirds of the world's population. Rice is the first crop to have its genome decoded.

• 2003 AD – GloFish, the first biotech pet, hits the North American market. Specially bred to detect water pollutants, the fish glows red under black light thanks to the addition of a natural bioluminescence gene.