China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Intrusion of Biotechnology for Degradation of Organic Wastes
Published in Rouf Ahmad Bhat, Moonisa Aslam Dervash, Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Khalid Zaffar Masoodi, Environmental Biotechnology, 2022
Rubiya Dar, Baba Uqab, Shah Ishfaq, Saleem Farooq, Riasa Zaffar, Hina Mushtaq
Biotechnology is often defined as the technology of hope as it promises sustainability in food, health, and environment and for this reason it is also called far-reaching technology. New advances in life sciences are biotechnology-driven as this technology has energized and unfolded many new scenarios. Biotech drugs and vaccines are benefiting over 100 million people worldwide, this has not only provided the health benefits but on the other hand accounts for a US$40 billion market. Large number of products especially agri-biotech and industrial biotech have helped mankind, and Biotechnology finds its applications in diverse fields like agriculture, industry, and environment. Techniques like tissue culture, genetic engineering, and molecular breeding have opened new opportunities and have improved the quality of life. This demonstrates that involvement of biotechnology in diverse fields. Biotechnology has no doubt answered a lot of queries related to many mysteries, but one biological and technical domain where it needs intervention is the agricultural waste recycling and application on agro-food industry. Serious environmental injure is being caused by adding enormous quantity of vineyard and winery wastes annually.
Plant Responses and Tolerance to Drought
Published in Hasanuzzaman Mirza, Nahar Kamrun, Fujita Masayuki, Oku Hirosuke, Tofazzal M. Islam, Approaches for Enhancing Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants, 2019
Sumit Jangra, Aakash Mishra, Priti, Kamboj Disha, Neelam R. Yadav, Ram C. Yadav
The complex attributes of drought tolerance have impeded the pace of development of drought-tolerant varieties. However, significant progress has been made in understanding the physiological, genetic and molecular aspects of drought tolerance. There are different avenues to combat the drought problem like genetic engineering and plant breeding, which are efficient ways to alter the genetic background of crops to enable them to perform well in drought conditions. Plants have evolved with complex response systems for drought stress, and these include drought-responsive genes including transcription factors, ROS scavenging enzymes and other functional proteins. Many genes involved in the regulatory process have been identified and genetically engineered for enhancing drought tolerance in crops by overexpression and suppression of transgenic technologies. In spite of gaining significant results from genetic engineering, this technology is not publicly acceptable worldwide. On the other hand, since the 1980s, with the advent of molecular markers, marker-assisted breeding is largely adapted by researchers to develop drought-tolerant lines/cultivars. The advancement in sequencing technology has provided high throughput genotyping platforms, which has facilitated the dissection of major and minor effect QTLs for diverse traits related to drought stress through MAS. These identified QTLs have been mapped and cloned in many crops. Multidisciplinary approaches for genetic engineering and molecular breeding will advance our knowledge to fathom the complex system underlying drought tolerance.
Biotechnology Development in Nigeria
Published in Sylvia Uzochukwu, Nwadiuto (Diuto) Esiobu, Arinze Stanley Okoli, Emeka Godfrey Nwoba, Christpeace Nwagbo Ezebuiro, Charles Oluwaseun Adetunji, Abdulrazak B. Ibrahim, Benjamin Ewa Ubi, Biosafety and Bioethics in Biotechnology, 2022
A. Akpa, N. C. Ezebuiro, Benjamin Ewa Ubi, Christie Onyia, Abdulrazak Ibrahim
Biotechnology is a broad area of biology, involving the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products and the product of its application depends on the regulatory environment, the needs to be met, and expertise of the handler (Stewart, 2016). Biotechniques such as tissue culture, genetic engineering, molecular breeding, proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, genome editing, and biocatalysis are responsible for the new wave of products and services in the health, agricultural, environmental, and industrial sectors. It suffices to say that the 21st-century global economic winners will be countries with very strong biotechnological capabilities. This underscores the significance of a national framework for coordinating biotechnology research and development, adaptation, and deployment to achieve national strategic targets. This strategic framework must integrate systems thinking, in which the development of each technology meets a corresponding articulated demand, galvanizing all relevant stakeholders in a value chain approach. In recognition of the importance of biotechnology to national development, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria on 23 April 2001 approved the National Biotechnology Policy, which led to the establishment of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) in November 2001. Established as a Federal Government Agency under the aegis of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, NABDA is responsible for implementing the biotechnology development policy, aimed at promoting, coordinating, and setting agenda for research, development, and adaptation of biotechnology in Nigeria.
Dietary cadmium exposure, risks to human health and mitigation strategies
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2023
Di Zhao, Peng Wang, Fang-Jie Zhao
Large variations in grain Cd concentrations have been reported among different rice cultivars (Arao & Ishikawa, 2006). A field survey including 1,763 highly diverse rice accessions collected from the world showed a 41- and 154-fold variation in grain Cd concentration under flooded and non-flooded conditions, respectively (Pinson et al., 2015). Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping is a powerful genetic approach to identify the effects of genetic factors controlling Cd accumulation in rice. A number of genes controlling Cd uptake and translocation have been characterized (Ishikawa et al., 2012; Sui et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2022b), paving the way to develop low accumulating rice cultivars through molecular breeding or genetic engineering. Oryza sativa heavy metal ATPase 3 (OsHMA3) plays an important role in transporting Cd into the vacuoles in root cells (Ueno et al., 2010). Overexpression of OsHMA3 in an Indica cultivar of rice decreased Cd content in brown rice grain by 94-98% with little effects on grain yield or the concentrations of essential trace elements (Lu et al., 2019).
Recent advances in arsenic mitigation in rice through biotechnological approaches
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2023
Shraddha Singh, Sudhakar Srivastava
Biotechnological tools have great potential to achieve food and nutritional security and have shown new horizons to develop As-free rice. A large number of targets can be utilized using genetic engineering/molecular breeding to move further in this direction. New genome editing techniques i.e., CRISPR/Cas-9 can be used to develop low As accumulating varieties without compromising on their agronomic performance. It allows multiplex gene editing so that various genes involved in As metabolism can be edited together and applied to the genome of the preferred rice cultivar. Transcriptional regulation mediated via CRISPR/dCas-9 can be an alternative approach for the development of low As accumulating novel rice cultivars. Molecular breeding by design can be done by altering the expression of genes involved at various steps of As metabolism. Knockout or overexpression of two or more genes can also be a useful futuristic research program for developing novel mutants showing the lowest As content in the grains. Besides, the combination of molecular breeding and modern agronomic practices should also be explored. Newly developed rice cultivars/mutants showing lower As levels in grain should be grown in soils supplemented with minerals, nanoparticles, or other amendments, which can further reduce As in rice grain.
A review of production, properties and advantages of biodiesel
Published in Biofuels, 2018
Vijay Kumar Mishra, Rachna Goswami
Janaun and Ellis [22] and Lin et al. [25] studied production of biodiesel from genetically engineered plants such as poplar, switchgrass, Miscanthus and big bluestem. These genetically engineered feedstocks can create bioenergy crops not associated with food crops. Therefore, they represented a sustainable biodiesel feedstock for the future. However, precautions in biosafety must be considered for these types of feedstocks. Additionally, further research is required to identify new oil crops to meet the increasing demand for biodiesel. A variety of tools including plant breeding, molecular breeding and biotechnology are required to increase oil production from conventional crops and to develop new oil crops for specific regions.