But then why should we call it a revolution?

Over the coming decades biotechnology will have a major impact in the health, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food, development of new drugs, human and animal vaccines, transgenic crops and a range of new processes thereby bringing substantial improvement in living standards of most people.

In school we are taught that chromosomes are the heredity bearers in the cell. This is because chromosomes contain strands of deoxyribonucleic acid, abbreviated as DNA. Studies carried out by James Watson, Francis Crick and others in early 1950’s led to the construction of the double helix model depicting the molecular structure of DNA. Genes are the building blocks of DNA.
 

  In essence, all properties of organisms depend on the sum of the gene potential. There are two broad categories of genes: Structural and Regulatory. The former genes encode for amino acid sequences of proteins, which as enzymes, determine the biochemical capabilities of the organisms; while the later genes control expressions of the structural genes by determining the rate of production of their protein products in response to intra or extra cellular signals.
 

Since the construction of the double helical structure, there has been spectacular unraveling of the complex interactions required to express the coded chemical information of the DNA molecule into cellular and organismal components. In nature, changes in the DNA of an organism can occur in two ways – Mutation and Conjugation. However, in recent years the manipulations of genetic material in organisms can be achieved in clearly definable ways like Organismal, Cellular and Molecular.
 

The Cellular method involves fusion and culture of cells and the regeneration of the whole plant from these cells. This process has enabled us preserve many important plant in laboratories. The Molecular manipulation has given us a direct control over the changes. This is the much-publicized area of genetic engineering or Recombinant DNA technology, which is bringing dramatic changes in the field of Biotechnology. It is now possible to add or delete parts of DNA molecule with a high degree of precession and the product can be easily identified.
 

Biotechnology has so far been considered as interplay between two components, one of which is the best biocatalyst for a particular process while the other is the construction and operation of the best environment for the catalyst to achieve optimum operation. The most effective, stable and convenient form for the biocatalyst is the whole organism.
 

Protoplast and cell fusion technologies forms one of the major aspects of biotechnology. Protoplast fusion has obvious empirical application in yield improvement of antibiotics by combining yield-enhancing mutation from different strains or even species.
 

Modern biotechnology plays a major role in the field of medicine. New medical treatment like Therapeutic product, that is, hormone regulatory proteins, antibodies; prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorder; vaccines; DNA probes for disease identification; genetic therapy are coming up.
 

Pneumonia, tuberculosis, cholera and leprosy to mention only a few no longer dominate society and in developed countries have been reduced to minor diseases. Antibiotics are antimicrobial compounds produced by living microorganisms, and are used therapeutically in control of infectious diseases. In virally derived diseases, vaccines are being developed by recombinant DNA technology against the influenza virus, poliovirus, hepatitis B virus and more recently HIV.
 

Insulin, which is used by millions in the world due to diabetes, was mostly extracted from pig or cattle. This caused side effects due to additional contaminating compound present in animal insulin. Recombinant human insulin does not have such problem and the production is unlimited.
 

One child in 5000 suffers from hypo pituitary dwarfism resulting from the deficiency of Somastotatin, the growth hormone. By cloning the human gene for stromastatin into a bacterium, 0.005 grams of hormone can be produced from 9 liters of transgenic bacterial fermentation, which would otherwise require half a million sheep brains.
 

The development of transgenic animals where DNA has been augmented by the addition of DNA from a source other than parental germ plasm, made possible to produce certain human proteins of biopharmaceutical potential including tissue plasminogen activators, blood-clotting factors etc. An American company can now produce human hemoglobin in the blood of transgenic pigs that could therefore serve as a human blood substitute.
 

Next coming to gene therapy, which is the treatment of disease by the transfer and expression of genetic material in a patient’s cell in order to restore normal cellular function. This is possible in two ways namely germ cell gene therapy where changes in individual’s genetic make up can be passed on to the off spring and, the other being Somatic cell gene therapy where the gene are introduced into the body cell that lack them and the effect is not passed on to their off springs.
 

The recently much spoken genome-mapping project was carried out with the following aims namely, to provide a genetic map for the relative position of the genes, to provide a physical map of the actual gene position and to determine the sequence of bases in the DNA.
 

Genes may be viewed as the biological software and are the programs that drive the growth, development and functioning of an organism. By changing the software in a precise and controlled manner, it becomes possible to produce desired changes in the characteristic of the organisms. These allows totally new functions to be added to the capabilities of organisms, and open up vistas for the genetic engineering of industrial microorganisms, and agricultural plants and animals. The most useful but commercially feasible project is the use of certain lactating animals such as sheep, pigs, rabbits and cows to produce novel secretion of human protein in their milk, which can then be extracted and used pharmaticeatically.
 

One of the major advances in plant cell culture was to achieve the complete reversal of the processes by causing this individual plant cell to go through a developmental programme from individual plant cells to tissues, to organs, and finally to the entire plant. In this way it is possible to clone plant cell. Now all variety of plant cells is available in cell banks. The main induced improvements for genetically manipulated plants will include initially Improved resistance to specific herbicide; improved resistance to insect present; Improved post harvest characteristics.
 

Microbiological effluent treatment will be a major field of biotechnological interest in the future. Integrated system will be developed for treating complex wastes. The role of biocatalyst or microbe will be constantly reassessed.
 

Enzymes, the complex protein molecules present in living cells, where they act as catalysts in bringing about chemical changes in substances. Although enzymes are formed in living cells many can be separated from the cells and can continued to function in vitro.
 

Amidst all these all these wonderful findings, some people consider that there is many potential risks associated with these new approaches, including unintentional transfer of gene into other crops, creations of herbicide – resistant weeds. Some considers that all these are technologies out of control.
 

The main concerns are relating to problems of organisms pathogenicity, problem of biologically active biotechnology products. People fear the environmental release of genetically manipulated organisms; the after effects of using genetically modified food and the applications of human genome project. For all these problems guidelines are well established to ensure safe working practices.
 

The ethical and moral issues raised by some aspects of biotechnology must be addressed by open discussion. Actually gene is merely a unique aggregate of organic molecule available for manipulation. Consequently the biotechnologists see no ethical problem in transferring genes between species and genera.
 

Before concluding let me highlight some of the major Indian development up to the present time in transgenic plants, namely insertion of Bt toxin gene on rice by Bose institute, Kolkata, Bt toxin gene on brinjal, tomato and cauliflower by IARI, New Delhi, Bt toxin gene in potato by CPRI, Shimla for generating plant resistant to lepidopteron pests.
 

Notwithstanding the differences, biotechnology will have important role in our society.
 

Thank you.