Consider the following statements about the principles of biotechnology:
A. Genetic engineering and bioprocess engineering are the two core techniques that enabled the birth of modern biotechnology.
B. Bioprocess engineering involves maintaining a sterile (microbial contamination-free) ambience in chemical engineering processes.
C. Bioprocess engineering enables the growth of a mixed population of microbes in large quantities for the manufacture of antibiotics, vaccines and enzymes.
D. A plasmid can be used as a vector to deliver an alien piece of DNA into the host organism, just as a mosquito acts as an insect vector for the malarial parasite.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B and D only
Modern biotechnology rests on two core techniques. Genetic engineering changes the genetic material and puts it into a host. Bioprocess engineering grows the chosen cells in large numbers under sterile conditions, so that the products can be made on a large scale.
A. Genetic engineering and bioprocess engineering are the two core techniques that enabled the birth of modern biotechnology. — True. These are the two core techniques the book names for modern biotechnology.
B. Bioprocess engineering involves maintaining a sterile (microbial contamination-free) ambience in chemical engineering processes. — True. A contamination-free setting is the heart of bioprocess engineering.
C. Bioprocess engineering enables the growth of a mixed population of microbes in large quantities for the manufacture of antibiotics, vaccines and enzymes. — False. The sterile ambience is kept to grow only the desired microbe or eukaryotic cell. Other microbes would be contamination and would spoil the product, so a mixed population is what the process tries to prevent.
D. A plasmid can be used as a vector to deliver an alien piece of DNA into the host organism, just as a mosquito acts as an insect vector for the malarial parasite. — True. The book uses this mosquito comparison to explain what a vector does: it carries something foreign into a host.
NCERT Extract:
Principles of Biotechnology – “Among many, the two core techniques that enabled birth of modern biotechnology are : (i) Genetic engineering : Techniques to alter the chemistry of genetic material (DNA and RNA), to introduce these into host organisms and thus change the phenotype of the host organism. (ii) Bioprocess engineering : Maintenance of sterile (microbial contamination-free) ambience in chemical engineering processes to enable growth of only the desired microbe/eukaryotic cell in large quantities for the manufacture of biotechnological products like antibiotics, vaccines, enzymes, etc.”
Principles of Biotechnology – “… The cut piece of DNA was then linked with the plasmid DNA. These plasmid DNA act as vectors to transfer the piece of DNA attached to it. You probably know that mosquito acts as an insect vector to transfer the malarial parasite into human body. In the same way, a plasmid can be used as vector to deliver an alien piece of DNA into the host organism.”