Class 12 Biology — Chapter 10: BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATIONS

What you'll learn

• ▸Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Agriculture
• ▸Bt Toxin for Pest-Resistant Crops
• ▸RNA Interference (RNAi) for Pest Resistance
• ▸Genetically Engineered Insulin
• ▸Gene Therapy
• ▸Plant Tissue Culture and Somatic Hybridization
• ▸Recombinant Therapeutics in Medicine

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- CHAPTER 10 12083CH12 BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATIONS 10.1 Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture 10.2 Biotechnological Applications in Medicine 10.3 Transgenic Animals 10.4 Ethical Issues Biotechnology, as you would have learnt from the previous chapter, essentially deals with industrial scale production of biopharmaceuticals and biologicals using genetically modified microbes, fungi, plants and animals. The applications of biotechnology include therapeutics, diagnostics, genetically modified crops for agriculture, processed food, bioremediation, waste treatment, and energy production. Three critical research areas of biotechnology are: (i) Providing the best catalyst in the form of improved organism usually a microbe or pure enzyme. (ii) Creating optimal conditions through engineering for a catalyst to act, and (iii) Downstream processing technologies to purify the protein/organic compound. Let us now learn how human bei…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

Tap "Get Solution" on any question to ask our AI tutor.

1. Discover how plants glow using genes. Get Solution →
2. Explain the purpose of 'golden rice'. Get Solution →
3. Find out about insect-resistant crops. Get Solution →
4. What is the term for the capacity to generate a whole plant from a single cell or explant? Get Solution →
5. The bacterium *Bacillus thuringiensis* is used in biotechnology to produce what? Get Solution →
6. What does GMO stand for in the context of biotechnology? Get Solution →
7. Golden rice is a genetically modified crop with enhanced nutritional value due to being enriched with which vitamin? Get Solution →
8. The process of producing thousands of plants in a short duration through tissue culture is known as what? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Some plants can be genetically modified to glow in the dark like fireflies.
• 💡 A common soil bacterium naturally produces a toxin that is deadly only to specific insects.
• 💡 Even tiny worms use a special gene-silencing trick to protect themselves from viruses.
• 💡 Scientists created 'golden rice' that helps prevent blindness because it makes Vitamin A.
• 💡 A single plant cell can be grown in a test tube to become a whole new plant.

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