Biotechnology is often considered synonymous with the biomedical research, but there are

many other industries which take advantage of biotech methods for studying, cloning and altering genes.
We have become accustomed to the idea of enzymes in our everyday lives and many people are familiar
with the controversies surrounding the use of GMOs in our foods. The agricultural industry is at the
center of that debate, but since the days of George Washington Carver, agricultural biotech has been
producing countless new products that have the potential to change our lives for the better.

1. Vaccines
Oral vaccines have been in the works for many years
as a possible solution to the spread of disease in
underdeveloped

countries,

where

costs

are

prohibitive to widespread vaccination. Genetically

engineered crops, usually fruits or vegetables,
designed to carry antigenic proteins from infectious
pathogens that will trigger an immune response when injected. An example of this is a patient-specific
vaccine for treating cancer. An anti-lymphoma vaccine has been made using tobacco plants carrying RNA
from cloned malignant B-cells. The resulting protein is then used to vaccinate the patient and boost
their immune system against the cancer. Tailor-made vaccines for cancer treatment have shown
considerable promise in preliminary studies.

2. Antibiotics
Plants are used to produce antibiotics for both human and animal use. Expressing antibiotic proteins in
livestock feed, fed directly to animals, is less costly than traditional antibiotic production, but this practice
raises many bioethics issues, because the result is widespread, possibly unnecessary use of antibiotics
which may promote growth of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Several advantages to using plants to
produce antibiotics for humans are reduced costs due to the larger amount of product that can be produced
from plants versus a fermentation unit, ease of purification, and reduced risk of contamination compared
to that of using mammalian cells and culture media.

3. Flowers
There is more to agricultural biotechnology than just fighting disease or improving food quality.
There are some purely aesthetic applications and an example of this is the use of gene
identification and transfer techniques to improve the color, smell, size and other features of
flowers. Likewise, biotech has been used to make improvements to other common ornamental
plants, in particular, shrubs and trees. Some of these changes are similar to those made to crops,

such as enhancing cold resistance of a breed of tropical plant, so it can be grown in northern
gardens.

4. Biofuels
The agricultural industry plays a large role in the biofuels industry, providing the feedstocks for
fermentation and refining of bio-oil, bio-diesel and bio-ethanol. Genetic engineering and enzyme
optimization techniques are being used to develop better quality feedstocks for more efficient conversion
and higher BTU outputs of the resulting fuel products. High-yielding, energy-dense crops can minimize
relative costs associated with harvesting and transportation (per unit of energy derived), resulting in
higher value fuel products.

5. Plant and Animal Breeding

Enhancing plant and animal traits by traditional methods like cross-pollination, grafting, and crossbreeding is time-consuming. Biotech advances allow for specific changes to be made quickly, on a
molecular level through over-expression or deletion of genes, or the introduction of foreign genes. The
latter is possible using gene expression control mechanisms such as specific gene promoters
and transcription

factors.

Methods

like

marker-assisted

selection improve

the

efficiency

of "directed" animal breeding, without the controversy normally associated with GMOs. Gene cloning
methods must also address species differences in the genetic code, the presence or absence of introns and
post-translational modifications such as methylation.

6. Pest Resistant Crops

For years, the microbe Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a protein toxic to insects, in particular the
European corn borer, was used to dust crops. To eliminate the need for dusting, scientists first
developed transgenic corn expressing Bt protein, followed by Bt potato and cotton. Bt protein is not toxic
to humans, and transgenic crops make it easier for farmers to avoid costly infestations. In 1999
controversy emerged over Bt corn because of a study that suggested the pollen migrated onto milkweed
where it killed monarch larvae that ate it. Subsequent studies demonstrated the risk to the larvae was very
small and, in recent years, the controversy over Bt corn has switched focus, to the topic of emerging
insect resistance.

7. Pesticide-Resistant Crops
Not to be confused with pest-resistance, these plants are tolerant of pesticides, allowing farmers
to selectively kill surrounding weeds without harming their crop. The most famous example of this is
the Roundup-Ready technology, developed by Monsanto. First introduced in 1998 as GM soybeans,

Roundup-Ready plants are unaffected by the herbicide glyphosate, which can be applied in copious
quantities to eliminate any other plants in the field. The benefits to this are savings in time and costs
associated with conventional tillage to reduce weeds, or multiple applications of different types of
herbicides to selectively eliminate specific species of weeds. The possible drawbacks include all the
controversial arguments against GMOs.

8. Nutrient Supplementation
In an effort to improve human health, particularly in underdeveloped countries, scientists are
creating genetically altered foods that contain nutrients known to help fight disease or
malnourishment. An example of this is Golden Rice, which contains beta-carotene, the precursor
for Vitamin A production in our bodies. People who eat the rice produce more Vitamin A, an
essential nutrient lacking in the diets of the poor in Asian countries. Three genes, two from
daffodils and one from a bacterium, capable of catalysing four biochemical reactions, were
cloned into rice to make it "golden". The name comes from the color of the transgenic grain due
to overexpression of beta-carotene, which gives carrots their orange color.

9. Abiotic Stress Resistance

Less than 20% of the earth is arable land but some crops have been genetically altered to make them more
tolerant of conditions like salinity, cold and drought. The discovery of genes in plants responsible for
sodium uptake has led to development of knock-out plants able to grow in high salt environments. Up- or
down-regulation of transcription is generally the method used to alter drought-tolerance in plants. Corn
and rapeseed plants, able to thrive under drought conditions, are in their fourth year of field trials in
California and Colorado, and it is anticipated that they'll reach the market in 4-5 years.

10. Industrial Strength Fibers

Spider silk is the strongest fiber known to man, stronger than kevlar (used to make bullet-proof
vests), with a higher tensile strength than steel. In August 2000, Canadian company Nexia
announced development of transgenic goats that produced spider silk proteins in their milk.
While this solved the problem of mass-producing the proteins, the program was shelved when
scientists couldn't figure out how to spin them into fibers like spiders do. By 2005, the goats
were up for sale to anyone who would take them. While it seems the spider silk idea has been put
on the shelf for the time-being, it is a technology that is sure to appear again in the future, once
more information is gathered on how the silks are woven.