Role of Biotechnology

Biotechnology has been a part of food production history for thousands of years. It includes technology such as fermentation to make alcoholic beverages and bread, as well as selective breeding of animals and plants. More recent food biotechnology relates to genetic engineering that can be harnessed to make more disease-resistant plant crops that help to alleviate food wastage and even be used to develop life-saving medicines.

So, if you are interested in learning more about the role of biotechnology, read on!

Role of Biotechnology in the Food Industry

Biotechnology involves the exploitation of biological processes in living organisms for industrial and other purposes for human use. It comes in many forms, some of which have been around for thousands of years, such as selective breeding in agriculture. The modern techniques of biotechnology involve genetic modification and harnessing the ability to create large quantities of food using microorganisms to help feed an increasing human population, more efficiently.

Examples of biotechnology used for food production include:

• Yeast for bread: yeast is a type of fungi used to give bread its distinctive rise with pockets of air.

• Certain bacteria for yoghurt: bacteria are added to milk, producing an enzyme that helps it ferment and turn into yoghurt.

• Enzymes for food production: lactase (an enzyme that breaks down the sugar lactose into glucose and galactose) can be added to milk to produce lactose-free milk for those who suffer from lactose intolerance; pectinase (an enzyme that breaks down pectin in cell walls) is used to make fruit juice from fruits.

Role of Biotechnology in Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as water-based agriculture, includes processes such as fish farming used to achieve sustainable fishing. With the growing demand for farmed fish, biotechnology can help meet those demands.

Biotechnology plays a massive role in aquaculture, namely ensuring fish:

• Achieve a substantial growth rate using techniques such as selective breeding

• Aqua feeds have an increased nutritional value by producing alternative plant-based sources of protein

• Health is improved by using genetic engineering to select disease-resistant genes and through the administration of vaccines

Examples of Biotechnology in Agriculture

Food security and trying to solve the problems associated with food production have been at the forefront of many scientists working in the agricultural industry by developing both new ways to grow food and new types of foods using techniques from biotechnology. This is carried out in 2 main ways: genetic modification (or engineering) and selective breeding.

Genetically Modified Crops

Food crops can be genetically modified or engineered. This is when an identified gene in a different species is removed using enzymes and placed into the DNA of another organism. When this occurs the resulting organism is known as transgenic.

Crops that have undergone genetic modification include such alterations to make them:

• More nutritionally valuable, such as golden rice - which contains a gene from another plant and a bacterium to make the rice grains produce beta-carotene, a chemical which turns into vitamin A in the human body. This variety of rice can help those suffering from disease-related deficiencies.

• Resistant to insects, such as in wheat and maize - these contain a gene from a bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis which naturally produces a toxin that kills pests such as caterpillars.

• Resistant to some herbicides (a chemical which destroys plants) - some plants contain this gene naturally. But, for those that don’t, this gene can be inserted so that when farmers spray their whole fields with herbicide, only the weeds are killed and not the crop plants.

• Drought-resistant so they grow better in drier, warmer conditions to increase crop yield.

Fig. 2 - Maize (or corn) crops are genetically modified to make them resistant to insects, pixabay.com

Selective breeding

This type of breeding with regard to agriculture has been going on for thousands of years. Selective breeding is when an organism with desirable traits is bred with an organism of the same species, generally containing desirable traits too. It is used in food crops, livestock rearing and fish farming too.

When compared with genetic modification, selective breeding doesn’t come with some of the ethical concerns laid out with the latter biotechnology technique. For some, genetic modification veers too far from natural processes.

Role of Biotechnology in Waste Management

Biotechnology can be harnessed to help improve environmental factors such as waste management. Throughout this article, we have touched on some of these technologies. Genetic engineering plays an important role in the efficiency of producing less wastage.

Genetically modified crops can help to reduce unnecessary food waste by helping farmers minimise crop loss while also conserving resources. It allows farmers to have higher yields while using less land, helping to conserve biodiversity. Additionally, growing some genetically modified crops has actually helped to reduce carbon dioxide emissions produced by agriculture since less heavy machinery is required.

Some crops which have been modified to reduce the need for fertilisers, and fish farms which use plant-based sources of food (usually from genetically modified crops) have less waste run-off which tends to lead to eutrophication (a process which reduces biodiversity due to the increase in aquatic plant and algae growth).