BIOTECHNOLOGY

1. India has become the world’s 12th biggest biotechnology economy having the second highest number of USFDA-approved plants
2. The genotype is a set of genes in DNA responsible for unique traits or characteristics while the phenotype is the physical appearance or characteristic of an organism.)
3. .BIOPROCESS Engineering: Maintenance of sterile (microbial contamination-free) ambience in chemical engineering processes to enable growth of only the desired microbe/eukaryotic cell in large quantities for the manufacture of biotechnological products like antibiotics, vaccines, enzymes, etc.
4. Red biotechnology:  health branch 
5. Green biotechnology:  crops  droughts and frosts.
6. White biotechnology:  manufacturing processes,  biofuels and  industry 
7. Yellow biotechnology: saturated fats in cooking oils.
8. Blue biotechnology:  marine  aquaculture, microalgae.
9. Grey biotechnology: Its purpose is the conservation and restoration of contaminated natural ecosystems through, as mentioned above, bioremediation processes.
10. Gold biotechnology: bioinformatics storing, analysing and separating biological information,  DNA and amino acid sequences.
11. blood-related disorders such as haemophilia, sickle cell anaemia, and Beta-Thalassemia.

12. CRISPR Genome editing has the potential to alter any DNA sequence, whether in a bacterium, plant, animal or human being.

13. • CRISPR-Cas9  two key molecules 
      • an enzyme called Cas9. This acts as a pair of ‘molecular scissors’ that can cut the two strands of DNA at a specific location in the genome so that bits of DNA can then be added or removed.
      • a piece of RNA called guide RNA (gRNA). This consists of a small piece of pre-designed RNA sequence (about 20 bases long) located within a longer RNA scaffold. The scaffold part binds to DNA and the pre-designed sequence ‘guides’ Cas9 to the right part of the genome. This makes sure that the Cas9 enzyme cuts at the right point in the genome.
    • The guide RNA is designed to find and bind to a specific sequence in the DNA. The guide RNA has RNA bases? that are complementary? to those of the target DNA sequence in the genome. This means that, at least in theory, the guide RNA will only bind to the target sequence and no other regions of the genome.
    • The Cas9 follows the guide RNA to the same location in the DNA sequence and makes a cut across both strands of the DNA.
    • At this stage the cell? recognises that the DNA is damaged and tries to repair it..
    1. There are 4 DNA molecules that are identified by the letters A, T, C, and G. Combinations of these letters make up the genetic instructions that our cells use to make proteins.Our genes can also be a source of disease.

    2. DNA breaks can happen from sunlight, for example, or during cell divisions that happen as we grow. Our cells have built-in DNA repair processes that constantly fix these breaks as they occur.

       However, breaks are sometimes repaired incorrectly, creating what is known as a mutation. Mutations can occur spontaneously or be passed down from our parents. Mutations can also change how our cells function, and may lead to serious diseases such as sickle cell disease (SCD), Leber congenital amaurosis 10 (LCA10), cancer, and many others.

    3. Gene therapy is a technique that modifies a person’s genes to treat or cure disease. Gene therapies can work by several mechanisms:

       1.Replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy of the gene

       2.Inactivating a disease-causing gene that is not functioning properly

       3.Introducing a new or modified gene into the body to help treat a disease

       Gene therapy products are being studied to treat diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases.

       Types

       1. Somatic Gene Therapy: Effects will not be transferred to next generation

       2.Germline Gene Therapy: Effects transferred to next generation

    4. Mitochondria are tiny rod-like structures in cells which act as power houses, generating the energy that allows our bodies to function. Unusually, they have their own DNA, distinct from the genetic material within the cell nucleus. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) makes up about 0.1% of a cell’s total DNA and does not affect individual characteristics such as appearance and personality.

    5. About MRT technique: MRT techniques essentially swap a woman’s defective mitochondrial DNA with that of a donor. The resulting embryo’s DNA will mostly come from the two parents who supplied the egg and sperm, but a tiny proportion – a fraction of a percentage – will come from the donor.

    6. Some people have a mitochondrial disease — a problem with the genetics in their mitochondria — which can lead to severe, life-threatening conditions, although this is rare. One treatment for a woman who might have one of these diseases is to replace the mitochondria in her eggs via IVF. This can be done via a process like the one used in Greece where the DNA is taken out of the woman’s egg and put into a donor woman’s egg once the DNA has been stripped from it, which is then fertilized with sperm to create an embryo.

    7.  Human Genome Project, this year, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) initiated the ambitious “Genome India Project” (GIP) on 3rd January 2020. The GIP aims to collect 10,000 genetic samples from citizens across India, to build a reference genome.

    8. Centre for Brain Research at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science, which acts as the central coordinator between a collaboration of 20 leading institutions, each collecting samples and conducting its own research. (IISc) in Bengaluru  (IITs). a simple blood test from participants and the information will be added to biobanks.

    9. The IndiGen initiative was undertaken by CSIR in April 2019, which was implemented by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.

       The objective is to enable genetic epidemiology and develop public health technologies applications using population genome data.

       This has enabled benchmarking the scalability of genome sequencing and computational analysis at population scale in a defined timeline.

       The ability to decode the genetic blueprint of humans through whole genome sequencing will be a major driver for biomedical science.

       IndiGen programme aims to undertake whole genome sequencing of thousands of individuals representing diverse ethnic groups from India.