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Biotechnology and Genomics Introduction
Biotechnology, when considered in a broad sense, is not an entirely modern discipline of science and technology. It has actually been practised for centuries in the past.
For instance, in the field of agriculture, for centuries farmers and gardeners have been making use of hybridization and grafting among plants with a view to bring about an improvement in existing attributes.
Using these approaches, several hundred varieties in ornamental plants including roses were produced. In the kitchen, biotechnology has always been practised for
(i) food preservation using natural products
(ii) pickle making and fermentation
(iii) tenderising meat (using papaya extract)
(iv) flavour enhancement (using chemicals)
(v) gelatinization, etc.
In the field of medicine, the indigenous knowledge available for centuries provided the basis for many drugs and therapies.
Similarly, the production of antibiotics from microorganisms became possible, when in the year 1929, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which was later produced at a large scale from cultures of Pencillium notatum (this proved useful for the treatment of wounded, soldiers during world War II).
More recently in 1970s, recombinant DNA technology marked the birth of new biotechnology, which brought a revolution in all areas of biology.
However, the latest phase in the history of biotechnology is the study of structure and function of whole genome (DNA) and whole proteome (proteins).
This area of research, popularly described as genomics.
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