STU1013

INTRODUCTION TO BIOTECHNOLOGY
ASSIGNMENT 1

Name :
Matric no :
Lecturer name :
Date of submission :

Afina Yian anak Chundi

45422
Mdm. Norafila Humrawali
25 October 2015

Biotechnology is a large area including variety of approaches together with methods in science
and technology which also involving all areas of life sciences. Generally, biotechnology helps to meet our
basic needs such as food, shelter, health and safety in direct or indirect ways. It has foundations in fields
such as call and molecular biology, physiology, immunology, microbiology, genetics, biochemistry,
medicine, agriculture, food science, environmental science, mining, chemical and bioprocess engineering.
Modern biotechnology is therefore defined as the scientific manipulation of living organisms at the
molecular level to produce useful products. Researchers manipulate living organisms and transfer genetic
material between organisms which underlie modern biotechnological innovation. The use of living
organisms, either their parts or by products in industrial applications is on the basis of biotechnology. For
instance, the biological use of microorganisms such as alcoholic fermentation and bread making, have
been registered since ancient times. From this perspective, selection and breeding productive plant and
animal varieties for farming and livestock purposes throughout history could be considered biotechnology
approaches. Biological information maintenance and its flow have provoked the expansion and
development of biotechnology applications itself. Scientific and industrial environments become more
specialize and diverse from times to times. Nowadays, biotechnological applications have divided into
five main majors according a colour system as the diversity fields of biotechnology need to be classify
based on its features and purposes. There are several major colour classifications of biotechnology which
are green, red, white and blue.
The current applications of biotechnology are predominantly practiced in the field of agriculture.
Green biotechnology is referred to the development of agriculture. It involves green phase evolution
which uses technologies to implementation of more fertile and resistant against biotic and abiotic stress.
In other words, this sub field includes agricultural applications of enhancing and improving qualities of
plants, animals and microorganisms by gene modification. Based on an understanding of DNA, scientists
have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity. Virus resistant crop plants and animals
have been developed, including advanced insect resistances. Green biotechnology ensures application of
environmentally friendly fertilizers and the uses of pesticides (Laursen, 2010) using in vitro cultivation
and cloning plants. The ability of genes identification that may confer advantages on certain crops have
led to the ability in order to make improvements in crops and livestock. For instance, a method of reverse
breeding and doubled haploid was conducted for the purpose of efficiently producing homozygous plants
from a heterozygous starting plant which has all desirable traits.
Red biotechnology is devoted to health preservation, medical or pharmaceutical. It involves the
production of vaccines, antibiotics, new drug discoveries, regenerative therapies, artificial organ
constructions and new diagnostics (Sasson A., 2005). In other words, red biotechnology comprises

engineering of genetic cures to cure diseases through genomic manipulation and designings organisms to
produce antibiotics. As this technology uses molecular biology techniques, all of the subjects are not
controversial. For instance, increased level of anthocyanins in tomatoes able to protect cancers (Butelli,
Titta, Glorgio, Mock, Matros, Peterek, Schijlen, Hall, Bovy & Luo, 2008) and also the anti-hepatitis
vaccine by lettuce (Kapusta, Modelska, Figlerowlcz, Pnlewski, Letellier, Lisowa, Yusibov, Koprowski,
Plucienniczak & Legocki, 1993) are considerable interest and goodwill.
White biotechnology is devoted to industrial biotechnology which involves application of
biocatalysis in industrial processes. This field is up-scaling of biological process from the lab scale into
industrial scale which then prompts products for mankind benefits. Power industry, chemical,
pharmaceutical, cosmetic, paper, textile, tanning and food industries are related to uses of white
biotechnology. The traditional industrial processes are replaced by biocatalytic ones for obtaining best
products of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fine chemicals and food additives. This white biotechnology
deals with production of fuel starting from renewable resources or by the use of photosynthesizing
microorganisms including genetically modified ones. It designs low resource consuming processes and
product which makes the products more energy efficient and nature friendly than traditional ones. Special
emphasis is put on the use of renewable substrates and environmentally friendly processes, making this
white biotechnology is considered as a component of green chemistry (Burczyk, 2006). Building up
biorefineries is a new trend in white biotechnology with concept implement directly from functioning in
traditional petroleum refineries where the raw material is fractionated to obtain series of valuable
products. Variety of biomass composition causes production of raw materials and valuable fine chemicals
accompanied by the degree of heat and energy required for proper functioning of the plant. Other than
that, subtilisin enzymes nowadays are widely used in laundry or dishwashing detergents, cosmetics, food
processing, skin care ointments, contact lens cleaner and for research in synthetic organic chemistry.
Blue biotechnology is comprised with aquaculture, coastal and marine biotechnology including
the molecular biological methods in order to marine and freshwater life with their derivatives. As marine
and freshwater life is adapted to survive in extremely ambient conditions in their habitats, this blue
biotechnology is concerned with the exploration and exploitation of the resulting diverse organisms in
order to develop new products. Sea presents the greatest biodiversity where there is potentially huge range
of sectors to be used from the use of blue biotechnology. Many products and applications from this
subfield are still in study and research although some of them are actually used on a daily basis. For
example, marine algae has been used as resources for biofuel production while improving knowledge of
basic biological functions, tools for steering the metabolism and cultivation methods of marine
microalgae. Besides, this sub field includes the development of food products and ingredients of marine

origin with optimal nutritional properties for human health such as develop innovative methods based on
omics and systems biology for selective breeding of aquaculture species which develop biotechnological
applications and methods to increase sustainability of aquaculture production together with alternative
preventive and therapeutic measures to enhance environmental welfare.
In conclusion, biotechnology is a prime with variety of definitions and fields, but in summarize
for the definition of biotechnology is the use of organisms by man. On these present days, scientists are
not only doing the physical manipulation at the visual level but also on the molecular level. Whether in
modern or molecular biotechnology, scientists physically select the desired characteristics at the
molecular level and modify it to the organisms genetic makeup. Biotechnology utilizes the sciences of
biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computers and information technology for tools and products
development that provoke great concern. Humans have always been manipulating organisms for
advantages, but now diversity of biotechnology has enabled humans to manipulate life and materials at
the atomic level through nanotechnology. Biotechnology has already begun to transform the traditional
industries like food processing and fermentation which then given rise the development of the whole new
technology for industrial production of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals, food and energy
sources and processing of waste materials. Thus, biotechnology industries must be staffed by trained
biotechnologists who not only have the biological knowledge basis sounds but also advance in grounding
in engineering methods.

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