Applications in Agriculture, Medicine, and Industry
What the domain covers
Applications in agriculture, medicine, and industry tests how biotechnology is used in crop improvement, animal production, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, industrial enzymes, fermentation, and environmental management. Expect questions linking a product to its technique, organism, and purpose.
Core rules and concepts
- Agriculture: tissue culture for clonal propagation, marker-assisted selection, transgenic crops such as Bt cotton, biofertilisers, biopesticides, and somatic hybrids.
- Bt crops carry Cry genes from Bacillus thuringiensis; the protein is toxic to susceptible insect larvae after activation in the alkaline gut. It is not a broad-spectrum chemical insecticide.
- Medicine: recombinant insulin, recombinant vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, gene therapy, stem-cell therapy, and molecular diagnostics.
- Industry: microbial fermentation produces enzymes, organic acids, antibiotics, vitamins, and biofuels; immobilised enzymes improve reuse and stability.
- Environmental biotechnology includes bioremediation, wastewater treatment, and biomining.
Worked example
A farmer wants to reduce damage by bollworm in cotton. Bt cotton is a targeted option because its Cry protein kills susceptible lepidopteran larvae that ingest plant tissue. Reasoning: the gene is expressed in plant cells; the larval gut activates the protoxin; susceptible larvae stop feeding. Non-target mammals do not have the same alkaline gut activation and receptor binding, so the toxin is not a mammalian poison.
Traps
Do not say Bt toxin kills all insects. Do not confuse biofertiliser with biopesticide. Do not claim Golden rice contains vitamin A itself-it provides provitamin A carotenoids. Do not assume a transgenic crop is automatically safe; it requires biosafety assessment.