History of biotechnology

History of biotechnology

            

Biotechnology is defined as the application of scientific and engineering principle in processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services. 

           

Babylonian (6000 B.C.)	Preparation of beer
Sumerians (4000 B.C.)	Twenty different varieties of beer
A.E. Garrod (1902)	Found that many human diseases like diabetes, phenylketoneria, tyrosinosis, cretinism, albinism etc. are caused by fault in metabolism
O.T. Avery, C.M.Macheod and M. McCarty (1940)	Pioneers in chemical nature of the substance that was responsible for bacterial transformation
G.W. Beadle and E.C. Tatum (1941)	Genes worked through biochemical pathways in Breadmould (Neurospora crassa) (one gene – one enzyme hypothesis)
Sanger (1953)	Established protein, insulin structure
Watson and Crick (1953)	DNA double helix
Nirenberg (1963)	Genetic code
Merrifield (1963)	First automatic polypetide synthesizing machine
Edman and Begg (1967)	Developed methods for protein degradation
Arber, Smith and Nathan (1972)	Restriction enzymes
Gilbert, Maxam, Sanger (1976)	Developed rapid methods for chemical analysis of DNA
Itakura et al.(1977)	Synthesised the genes of human somatostatin and insulin
H.G. Khorana (1979)	For the first time synthesized artificial gene capable of functioning within a living cell

Tissue culture

Klercker (1892)	Isolation of protoplast
Haberlandt (1902)	Totipotency of cells
White (1934)	Growing excised tomato roottip invitro for an indefinite period
Gauthert (1937)	Cultivating undifferentiated carrot tissue
Van Overbeek et al. (1941)	Isolated embryos of Datura and it was grown as chemical medium supplemented with coconutmilk
Ball (1946)	First demonstrated possibility of regenerating plant invitro from shoot apex of certain angiosperms
Skoog and Tsui (1948)	Caulogenesis in tobacco stem segments
La Rue (1949)	Grow immature maize emdosperm in culture
Morel and Wetmore (1951)	First to achieve success with monocut culture
Tulecke (1953)	First haploid callus from pollen grains of Ginkgo biloba
Munir, Hildebrandt and Riker (1954)	Growth of isolated cells in liquid medium
Skoog et al. (1955)	Identified 6-furfurylaminopurine, a degraded product of herring sperm DNA stimulates cell divison
Skoog and Miller (1957)	Tobacco callus culture Auxin/cytokinin ratio determines the root or shoot initiation
Reinert (1959)	Nutrient medium solidified with agar for embryogenesis
Cocking (1960)	Isolated plant protoplast enzymatically
Guha and Maheswari (1964)	Obtained direct embryos from cultured anthers of Datura which led to the development of haploid plants
Nishi et al. (1968)	First to induce differentiation in monocot callus culture of rice
Binding et al. (1972)	Isolated Streptomycin resistant callus of Petunia hybrida
Carlson and his group (1972)	Fused protoplast of Nicotiana glauca and N. langsdorffii (Parasexual hybrid)

Biotechnology in India         

• ‘National Biotechnology Board’ under DST in early eighties
• In 1986, DBT created in the Ministry of Science and Technology
• 
  International center for genetic engineering and biotechnology (ICGEB)
• Trieste (Italy)               New Delhi (1987) (India)

            In addition research centers of biotechnology was established at

1.      IARI, New Delhi (NRC for plant biotechnology)

2.      NDRI, Karnal

3.      IVRI, Izatnagar

DBT  - Research activities

Biotechnological processes

            Microbiology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry -roots of biotechnology

Activities in biotechnology

1. Recombinant DNA and Genetic Engineering
2. Cell cultures
3. Waste treatment and utilization
4. Enzymes and biocatalysts
5. Fuels
6. Nitrogen fixation
7. Fermentation and pharmaceuticals