Category Archives: Biotechnology

DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid it is the backbone of all living creatures on earth. It is a molecule, which is having a double helical structure and encoded with genetic instructions. It leads to the functioning of all living beings including viruses. DNA profiling is done by the forensic scientists. It depicts the nature of the DNA and act as a person identifier. By knowing the genomic sequences a scientist could easily predict the DNA of the person.

Identification Of Diseases

In this era this technology has become a boon or us in many ways. This concept of DNA testing is booming in the market like anything. It has become the latest rage specially in the health care market. Many companies are there who will promote you the test kits and let you know about the diseases like cardiac problem, any alzimers syndromes, any indication of breast cancer if have any. But here comes the argument many feeble minded people are there who will completely go against it. As the procedures includes blood testing and many people are phobic of syringes, then comes the acceptance of the disease if have any.

Benefits of DNA testing

Many women in our country are facing problem with breast cancer. As they are afraid of testing their blood and DNA. They don’t have the exact DNA marker. This is a big concern for the physicians as well. It is always recommended having a DNA testing for a healthy life. The risk factors get decreased than before and longevity will increase. Myopic thinking should be removed from the society and should learn to accept the truth. DNA testing will also give information about the allergic reaction with various pathogens. The life will be in a proper and better shape.

Detection of criminals

Normal people have a vague idea about this DNA testing which is not at all harmful. Through DNA testing crimes can also be detected. Like in the forensic lab the victim’s body will undergo a scrupulous check up and easily it will be detected about the death of the person. Many criminal lawyers take support from this process which make their job easy to detect the criminal. Though it’s not a good indication for the crime masters. By taking the blood sample or from the foot steps even, of the suspected person it will unveil the truth of the real murder. It can save our nation from crimes.

Detection of pregnancy

Many unrevealed and awful activities like rape case, illegal affairs lead to pregnancy. In many cases the male denied for becoming a father. The lady could easily raise her voice for justice, here

Comes the major role of DNA testing which will easily catch hold of the real father. Sometimes it is not safe for the pregnant woman to have DNA testing as it might cause harm to the fetus. The illegal activities in our society have inflated than before so DNA testing should play a vital role in the society of crimes.The lady will get justice and to deliver her baby.

As a whole it’s a win-win situation because some hospitals testing the DNA of the fetus take place, as an outcome they reveal the gender, which might lead to a death of a baby girl.This is an illegal activity. Some lawyers are also against this. But in this contemporary era one must believe in DNA testing to save our nation.

Source:
http://www.biotechblog.org/entry/dna-testing-good-bad-discuss/

Background:
Microbial lipid production by using lignocellulosic biomass as the feedstock holds a great promise for biodiesel production and biorefinery. This usually involves hydrolysis of biomass into sugar-rich hydrolysates, which are then used by oleaginous microorganisms as the carbon and energy sources to produce lipids. However, the costs of microbial lipids remain prohibitively high for commercialization. More efficient and integrated processes are pivotal for better techno-economics of microbial lipid technology.
Results:
Here we describe the simultaneous saccharification and enhanced lipid production (SSELP) process that is highly advantageous in terms of converting cellulosic materials into lipids, as it integrates cellulose biomass hydrolysis and lipid biosynthesis. Specifically, Cryptococcus curvatus cells prepared in a nutrient-rich medium were inoculated at high dosage for lipid production in biomass suspension in the presence of hydrolytic enzymes without auxiliary nutrients. When cellulose was loaded at 32.3 g/L, cellulose conversion, cell mass, lipid content and lipid coefficient reached 98.5%, 12.4 g/L, 59.9% and 204 mg/g, respectively. Lipid yields of the SSELP process were higher than those obtained by using the conventional process where cellulose was hydrolyzed separately. When ionic liquid pretreated corn stover was used, both cellulose and hemicellulose were consumed simultaneously. No xylose was accumulated over time, indicating that glucose effect was circumvented. The lipid yield reached 112 mg/g regenerated corn stover. This process could be performed without sterilization because of the absence of auxiliary nutrients for bacterial contamination.
Conclusions:
The SSELP process facilitates direct conversion of both cellulose and hemicellulose of lignocellulosic materials into microbial lipids. It greatly reduces time and capital costs while improves lipid coefficient. Optimization of the SSELP process at different levels should further improve the efficiency of microbial lipid technology, which in turn, promote the biotechnological production of fatty acid-derived products from lignocellulosic biomass.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/36

Background:
Currently, the most promising microorganism used for the bio-production of butyric acid is Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755T; however, it is unable to use sucrose as a sole carbon source. Consequently, a newly isolated strain, Bacillus sp. SGP1, that was found to produce a levansucrase enzyme, which hydrolyzes sucrose into fructose and glucose, was used in a co-culture with this strain, permitting C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755T to ferment sucrose to butyric acid.
Results:
B. sp. SGP1 alone did not show any butyric acid production and the main metabolite produced was lactic acid. This allowed C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755T to utilize the monosaccharides resulting from the activity of levansucrase together with the lactic acid produced by B. sp. SGP1 to generate butyric acid, which was the main fermentative product within the co-culture. Furthermore, the final acetic acid concentration in the co-culture was significantly lower when compared with pure C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755T cultures grown on glucose. In fed-batch fermentations, the optimum conditions for the production of butyric acid were around pH 5.50 and a temperature of 37[degree sign]C. Under these conditions, the final butyrate concentration was 34.2+/-1.8 g/L with yields of 0.35+/-0.03 g butyrate/g sucrose and maximum productivity of 0.3+/-0.04 g/L/h.
Conclusions:
Using this co-culture, sucrose can be utilized as a carbon source for butyric acid production at a relatively high yield. In addition, this co-culture offers also the benefit of a greater selectivity, with butyric acid constituting 92.8% of the acids when the fermentation was terminated.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/35

DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid it is the backbone of all living creatures on earth. It is a molecule, which is having a double helical structure and encoded with genetic instructions. It leads to the functioning of all living beings including viruses. DNA profiling is done by the forensic scientists. It depicts the nature of the DNA and act as a person identifier. By knowing the genomic sequences a scientist could easily predict the DNA of the person.

Identification Of Diseases

In this era this technology has become a boon or us in many ways. This concept of DNA testing is booming in the market like anything. It has become the latest rage specially in the health care market. Many companies are there who will promote you the test kits and let you know about the diseases like cardiac problem, any alzimers syndromes, any indication of breast cancer if have any. But here comes the argument many feeble minded people are there who will completely go against it. As the procedures includes blood testing and many people are phobic of syringes, then comes the acceptance of the disease if have any.

Benefits of DNA testing

Many women in our country are facing problem with breast cancer. As they are afraid of testing their blood and DNA. They don’t have the exact DNA marker. This is a big concern for the physicians as well. It is always recommended having a DNA testing for a healthy life. The risk factors get decreased than before and longevity will increase. Myopic thinking should be removed from the society and should learn to accept the truth. DNA testing will also give information about the allergic reaction with various pathogens. The life will be in a proper and better shape.

Detection of criminals

Normal people have a vague idea about this DNA testing which is not at all harmful. Through DNA testing crimes can also be detected. Like in the forensic lab the victim’s body will undergo a scrupulous check up and easily it will be detected about the death of the person. Many criminal lawyers take support from this process which make their job easy to detect the criminal. Though it’s not a good indication for the crime masters. By taking the blood sample or from the foot steps even, of the suspected person it will unveil the truth of the real murder. It can save our nation from crimes.

Detection of pregnancy

Many unrevealed and awful activities like rape case, illegal affairs lead to pregnancy. In many cases the male denied for becoming a father. The lady could easily raise her voice for justice, here

Comes the major role of DNA testing which will easily catch hold of the real father. Sometimes it is not safe for the pregnant woman to have DNA testing as it might cause harm to the fetus. The illegal activities in our society have inflated than before so DNA testing should play a vital role in the society of crimes.The lady will get justice and to deliver her baby.

As a whole it’s a win-win situation because some hospitals testing the DNA of the fetus take place, as an outcome they reveal the gender, which might lead to a death of a baby girl.This is an illegal activity. Some lawyers are also against this. But in this contemporary era one must believe in DNA testing to save our nation.

Source:
http://www.biotechblog.org/entry/dna-testing-good-bad-discuss/

Background:
The investigation of structural organisation in lignocellulose materials is important to understand changes in cellulase accessibility and reactivity resulting from hydrothermal deconstruction, to allow development of strategies to maximise bioethanol process efficiencies. To achieve progress, wheat straw lignocellulose and comparative model wood cellulose were characterised following increasing severity of hydrothermal treatment. Powder and fibre wide-angle X-ray diffraction techniques were employed (WAXD), complemented by enzyme kinetic measurements up to high conversion.
Results:
Evidence from WAXD indicated that cellulose fibrils are not perfectly crystalline. A reduction in fibril crystallinity occurred due to hydrothermal treatment, although dimensional and orientational data showed that fibril coherency and alignment were largely retained. The hypothetical inter-fibril spacing created by hydrothermal deconstruction of straw was calculated to be insufficient for complete access by cellulases, although total digestion of cellulose in both treated straw and model pulp was observed. Both treated straw and model pulps were subjected to wet mechanical attrition, which caused separation of smaller fibril aggregates and fragments, significantly increasing enzyme hydrolysis rate. No evidence from WAXD measurements was found for preferential hydrolysis of non-crystalline cellulose at intermediate extent of digestion, for both wood pulp and hydrothermally treated straw.
Conclusions:
The increased efficiency of enzyme digestion of cellulose in the lignocellulosic cell wall following hydrothermal treatment is a consequence of the improved fibril accessibility due to the loss of hemicellulose and disruption of lignin. However, incomplete accessibility of cellulase at the internal surfaces of fibrillar aggregates implies that etching type mechanisms will be important in achieving complete hydrolysis. The reduction in crystalline perfection following hydrothermal treatment may lead to an increase in fibril reactivity, which could amplify the overall improvement in rate of digestion due to accessibility gains. The lack of preferential digestion of non-crystalline cellulose is consistent with the existence of localised conformational disorder, at surfaces and defects, according to proposed semicrystalline fibril models. Cellulases may not interact in a fully selective manner with such disordered environments, so fibril reactivity may be considered as a function of average conformational states.Source:
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/6/1/33

Biotechnology at the Cutting Edge - Jay Keasling
Jay Keasling, Berkeley Lab ALD for Biosciences and CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute, appears in a video on biotechnology at the Smithsonian #39;s National Museum of American History. The video is part of en exhibit titled "Science in American Life," which examines the relationship between science, technology, progress and culture through artifacts, historical photographs and multimedia technology.

By: JointBioenergyInst

Read the original post:
Biotechnology at the Cutting Edge - Jay Keasling - Video