The Facts on File Dictionary of Biotechnology And Genetic Engineering: Dictionary of Biotechnology And Genetic Engineering

288 Pages·2006·2.48 MB·English

by  Mark L. Steinberg

The Facts On File
DICTIONARY of
BIOTECHNOLOGY
and
GENETIC ENGINEERING
Third Edition

The Facts On File
DICTIONARY of
BIOTECHNOLOGY
and
GENETIC
ENGINEERING
Third Edition
Mark L. Steinberg, Ph.D.
Sharon D. Cosloy, Ph.D.
The Facts On File Dictionary of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
Third Edition
Copyright © 2006, 2001, 1994 by Mark L. Steinberg, Ph.D., and Sharon Cosloy,
Ph.D.
Illustrations © 2006 by Infobase Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
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New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Steinberg, Mark (Mark L.)
The Facts on File dictionary of biotechnology and genetic engineering/
Mark L. Steinberg and Sharon D. Cosloy—Third ed.
p. cm. — (The Facts On File science library)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8160-6351-6 (alk.paper)
1. Biotechnology—Dictionaries. 2. Genetic engineering—Dictionaries.
I. Cosloy, Sharon D. II. Title. III. Series.
TP248.16.S84 2000
660.6′03—dc21 00-035463
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Text and cover design by Cathy Rincon
Printed in the United States of America
MP FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
This edition is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Sharon Cosloy by her
children, Michael and Rebecca, and her husband, Edward. Sharon was a
loving mother, a devoted wife, a dedicated mentor, and an accomplished
professor and researcher.
And above all, she was a kind and gentle woman with a bright spirit that
still lives on today through the people who were fortunate enough to be
touched in life by her.
From MLS: To Sharon, in memoriam, a good friend and valued
colleague. You are greatly missed.

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Entries A to Z 1
Appendixes 261
Acronyms (and Other Abbreviations) 262
The Chemical Elements 267
Periodic Table 268
The Genetic Code 269
P urine and Pyrimidine Bases Found 270
in Nucleic Acids
S ide Chains (R Groups) for 271
Individual Amino Acids
Bioinformatics Web Sites 272
Enzymes Used in Gene Cloning 274
PREFACE
The last decades of the 20th century produced a dramatic revolution in the
fi eld of biology in which, for the fi rst time, the ability to modify the genetic
makeup of higher organisms in the laboratory rather than by the random
forces of natural selection was realized. This new era was born out of criti-
cal discoveries in the mid-1970s that led to the appearance of new fi elds of
molecular genetics variously known as gene cloning, genetic engineering, and
biotechnology. The central theme of genetic engineering is the introduction of
genetic material altered in a laboratory into an organism different from that
from which it was originally derived. The introduction of genes from higher
organisms into microorganisms made it possible to isolate, amplify, study
and ultimately engineer individual genes for a variety of specialized purposes.
These techniques have also allowed scientists to look closely at the structure,
function, and regulation of genes and their proteins.
Genetic engineering has given rise to technologies that were unthinkable
barely two decades ago: recombinant antibodies to fi ght cancer, the isolation
of genes responsible for genetic diseases, the synthesis of unlimited quantities
of therapeutic agents, human hormones and critical blood factors in bacterial
“factories,” the creation of genetically engineered plants and animals, and
the decoding of the human genome—only a few examples of technologies
that have been realized even at the time of the fi rst printing of this dictionary.
Much of the research in biotechnology and genetic engineering has moved
from the academic world into the industrial setting. As a consequence, many
new and potential applications are in the hands of private enterprises where,
fueled by more substantial funding and motivated by the forces of the market-
place, the development of new products has reached an explosive pace. This
has also meant that even as the rapidly increasing pace of progress taxes the
ability to keep up with new developments, there is an ever-increasing need to
understand the legal and ethical issues that inevitably accompany any new
technology. However, in contrast to other new technologies, the products of
genetic engineering deal directly with fundamental biological processes and
are, by their very nature, certain to have an immediate and profound impact
on all areas of human health.
The purpose of this dictionary is to provide readers with access to the basic
vocabulary of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering so that those
with even an elementary knowledge of basic biology and biochemistry will be
able to follow the fl ood of fast-breaking developments in biotechnology and
genetic engineering that constantly appears in the media.
At the time of the fi rst printing of The Facts On File Dictionary of Biotech-
nology and Genetic Engineering, molecular cloning of genes had only recently
matured. Even then, rapidly accumulating data from large-scale sequence
analyses and the development of new techniques for amplifi cation of DNA
at the microscale level were already yielding information that allowed for the
Preface
determination of gene function, including the molecular nature of defects
underlying numerous genetic diseases. A revised edition of the dictionary
added terminology of the developing biomedical fi elds of molecular medicine,
DNA technology, gene therapy, and genomics. In recent years, new areas of
research have elucidated signaling pathways that are now known to regulate
essential biochemical pathways, including cell growth, metabolism, and dif-
ferentiation. Many modern pharmaceuticals are agents that target critical
signaling pathways involved in disease processes. Among these are drugs
for the treatment of high blood pressure, allergies, sexual dysfunction, anti-
infl ammatory and anti-viral agents, various cancer chemotherapies, and many
others. In a parallel track, the completion of the Human Genome Project in
2003, together with the computer technologies for data mining and relational
analyses, created the new area of computational biology known as bioinfor-
matics. The application of bioinformatic methods to burgeoning nucleotide
and protein databases has yielded new insights into many genetic diseases
and has helped elucidate the relationships between genes and the biochemical
pathways that the gene products regulate. Bioinformatics is currently provid-
ing new approaches to drug design based on predictive computer models to
tailor drugs to act on specifi c molecular targets. The dictionary was updated
to account for these as well as other new developments in this rapidly chang-
ing fi eld.
The new “third edition” of the dictionary focuses on the new terminology in
the evolving areas of genomics, bioinformatics, cell signaling, and molecular
medicine. In addition, there are a number of biochemical terms pertaining to
recent advances in medicines for the treatment of viral diseases, mental ill-
ness, cholesterol metabolism, plant engineering, and stem cell research.
Since this book addresses an audience from diverse backgrounds and covers a
broad fi eld, we attempted to include both basic as well as more technical ter-
minology in a number of areas including plant and animal biology in order to
meet the needs of as many readers as possible. There has also been an attempt
to make the dictionary self-contained in the sense that, in cases where techni-
cal terms appear in defi nitions, these terms will be defi ned elsewhere in the
book. It is anticipated that the dictionary will be of benefi t to a wide-ranging
audience, including high school and college students, lawyers, physicians, sci-
entists, or others with a particular need to keep abreast of the rapidly develop-
ing areas of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
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