Biotechnology - Changing Life Through Science [3 Vols] - K. Lerner, B. Lerner (Thomson Gale, 2007) WW

866 Pages·2007·40.46 MB·English

Biotechnology

Changing Life Through Science

Biotechnology

Changing Life Through Science

Volume 1
Medicine

K. Lee Lerner and

Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Editors

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science

K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Editors

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Biotechnology : changing life through science / K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner,
editors.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-0151-5 (set hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4144-0151-5 (set hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-0152-2 (vol. 1 hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4144-0152-3 (vol. 1 hardcover : alk. paper)
[etc.]
1. Biotechnology–Juvenile literature. I. Lerner, K. Lee. II. Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth.
TP248.218.B56 2007
660.6–dc22
2006029356

ISBN-13:

978-1-4144-0151-5 (set)
978-1-4144-0152-2 (vol. 1)
978-1-4144-0153-9 (vol. 2)
978-1-4144-0154-6 (vol. 3)

ISBN-10:

1-4144-0151-5 (set)
1-4144-0152-3 (vol. 1)
1-4144-0153-1 (vol. 2)
1-4144-0154-X (vol. 3)

This title is also available as an e-book.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-0465-3, ISBN-10: 1-4144-0465-4

Contact your Thomson Gale sales representative for ordering information.

Printed in China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Project Editor
Kristine Krapp

Editorial
Kathleen Edgar, Madeline Harris,
Melissa Hill, Elizabeth Manar,
Kim McGrath, Paul Lewon

Indexing Services
Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company

Rights and Acquisitions
Margaret Chamberlain-Gaston,
Shalice Caldwell-Shah

Imaging and Multimedia
Randy Bassett, Lezlie Light,
Michael Logusz, Christine O’Bryan,
Robyn Young

Product Design
Jennifer Wahi

Composition
Evi Seoud, Mary Beth Trimper

Manufacturing
Wendy Blurton, Dorothy Maki

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv
Words to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxv

VOLUME 1: MEDICINE
Antibiotics, Biosynthesized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Anti-Rejection Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Arthritis Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Aspirin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Biochip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Bioethics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Bioinformatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Blood Transfusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Blood-Clotting Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Bone Marrow Transplant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bone Substitutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Botox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Cancer Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chemotherapy Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Cloning, Human. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Collagen Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Corticosteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
C-Reactive Protein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Cryonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Cystic Fibrosis Drugs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Designer Genes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Dialysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
DNA Fingerprinting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
DNA Sequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
DNA Vaccines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Enzyme Replacement Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science
v

Forensic DNA Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Frozen Egg Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
GenBank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Gene Banks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Gene Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Genetic Testing, Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Genetic Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Genetically Modified Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Genomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Germline Gene Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
HapMap Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Heart Disease Drugs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
HIV/AIDS Drugs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Human Genome Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Human Growth Hormone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Insulin, Recombinant Human . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
In-Vitro Fertilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Metabolic Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Multiple Sclerosis Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Nuclear Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Organ Transplants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Painkillers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Paternity Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Penicillins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Pharmacogenetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Protein Therapies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Skin Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Somatic Cell Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Stem Cell Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Stem Cells, Adult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Stem Cells, Embryonic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Synthetic Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Therapeutic Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Tissue Banks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Tissue Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Vaccines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Xenotransplantation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

VOLUME 2: AGRICULTURE
Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Alfalfa, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Animal Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Apiculture (Beekeeping) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Aquaculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Beer-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Biofuels, Liquid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science
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CONTENTS

Biofuels, Solid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Biological Crop Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Biological Pest Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Biopreservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Biotech in the Dairy Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Bovine Growth Hormone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Bread-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Breeding, Selective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Bt Insect-Resistant Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Bt Sprays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Cheese-Making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Compost/Organic Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Corn, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Cotton, Genetically Engineered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Disease-Resistant Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Drought-Resistant Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Dyes, Plant-Based. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Fat Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Food Bioprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Food Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Frost-Resistant Crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Genetic Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Genetic Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Genetically Engineered Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Genetically Modified Organisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Herbicide-Tolerant Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Hybrid Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Hydroponics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Plant Grafting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Pseudoscience and Biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Recombinant DNA Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Rice, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Salinity-Resistant Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Sentinel Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Soap-Making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Soil-Modifying Bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Soybeans, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Sugar Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Terminator Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Tomato, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Transgenic Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Transgenic Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Vegetable Oils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Wheat, Genetically Engineered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Wine-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Yogurt-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

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VOLUME 3: INDUSTRY
Amino Acids, Commercial Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Animal Research and Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Antimicrobial Soaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Biodegradable Packaging and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Biodetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
Bioglass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Bioleaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Biological Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Biomagnetism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Biometrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Biomimetic Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
Bioplastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Bioreactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Bioremediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Biorobotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Biorubber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Biosafety Level Laboratories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Cornstarch Packing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Cosmetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
DNA Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
E. coli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Electrophoresis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
Enzymes, Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Ethanol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
Explosives, Bioremediation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Extraterrestrial Biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Fermentation, Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Fingerprint Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
Fuel Cell Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Government Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
Green Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
High-Fructose Corn Syrup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
Laundry Detergents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Molecular Farming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Mussel Adhesive Protein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Nanotechnology, Molecular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Nutraceuticals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Oil-Seed Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Organic Acids, Commercial Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Patents in Biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Polymerase Chain Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Retina and Iris Scans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
Security-Related Biotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
Silk-Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

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CONTENTS

Smart Materials and Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Solid Waste Treatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Waste Gas Treatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762
Wastewater Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Yeast Artificial Chromosome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Where To Learn More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lv
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lix

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science
ix

CONTENTS

Introduction

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science is devoted to

helping younger students and general readers understand the
fast-developing science and issues related to technologies touching
on the most intimate and fundamental mechanisms of life.

This book is a collection of more than 165 entries on topics covering

biotechnology applications ranging across medicine, agriculture, and
industry. To be sure, the topics are often challenging to younger
students—but in such challenges lie the opportunity to place their
early studies of basic science into a context that both motivates them
toward science and that enhances their critical thinking skills as they
evaluate news and issues related to science, technology, and ethics.

Toward this goal, Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science

entries are designed to instruct, challenge, and excite less-experienced
students, while providing a solid foundation and reference for stu-
dents already captivated by biotechnology.

At the core of the advances in biotechnology lies the science of

molecular biology and genetics. Because Biotechnology: Changing Life
Through Science is designed for younger students, the editors have
attempted to include simple explanations of sometimes advanced
scientific principles. Despite the complexities of genetics, along with
the fast pace of research and innovation, every effort has been made to
set forth entries in everyday language and to provide generous explan-
ations of the most important terms used by professional scientists.

Essential features of Biotechnology: Changing Life
Through Science

Written by experts, teachers, and expert writers in fields of

physics, molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology, every

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science
xi

effort has been taken to explain scientific concepts clearly and
simply, without sacrificing fundamental accuracy. The articles in
the book are meant to be understandable by anyone with a curi-
osity about biotechnology.

Entries are arranged alphabetically within volumes devoted to

applications generally (but not exclusively) related to biomedical,
agricultural, and industrial biotechnologies. See also references at
the end of entries alert the readers to related entries across the
three-volume set that may provide additional resources or insights
each topic.

Each entry contains a Words to Know section to help students

understand important or complex terms. A general compendium of
these terms is also included in the book. A Timeline allows students
to place events in context to significant advances in science and
biotechnology.

A Where To Learn More section lists generally usable print

material and Web sites, while a comprehensive General Index
guides the reader to topics and terms mentioned in the book.

Photos and color illustrations created for this title are included

throughout the book where they might stimulate interest or under-
standing.

Advisors and Contributors

While compiling this volume, the editors relied on the expertise

and contributions of the following scholars, teachers, and writers:

William Arthur Atkins, M.S.
Physics and science writer
Normal, Illinois
Antonio Farina, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Embryology, Obstetrics, and Gynecology
University of Bologna. Italy
Larry Gilman, Ph.D.
Electrical engineerr
Sharon, Vermont
Amit Gupta, M.S.
Science and technology writer
Ahmedabad, India
Brian D. Hoyle, Ph.D.
Microbiologist
Nova Scotia, Canada

Biotechnology: Changing Life Through Science
xii

INTRODUCTION