Biotechnology the Origins of Biotechnology for Centuries,

Biotechnology

The Origins of Biotechnology

For centuries, humans have been selectively breeding different plants and animals in an attempt to create a species more useful to human endeavors. This alteration of the fundamental basis of a species, although performed for most of human history, has only recently been understood in a more comprehensive manner. The origin of modern genetics can be traced to a little known European monk named Gregor Mendel, who, in the 1860's, performed the first modern scientific experiments aimed at understanding the true nature of heredity. Although news of his work was not generally widespread during his lifetime, by the 1890's, science technology had evolved enough to begin a comprehensive look at heredity; and Mendel's work became the basis of this exploration. From this beginning, the science of biotechnology has currently evolved into, not only a major source of knowledge, but an ever evolving source of a technology as well.

In the 1860's a European monk named Gregor Mendel first began experimenting with pea plants in an attempt to better understand the nature of heredity. By cross-breeding two different plants that always displayed a specific trait, called true breeding plants, Mendel discovered what is referred to as "Mendel's principles of segregation," sometimes called the "law of segregation." This principle is based on the idea that for each trait an individual displays, they must possess two alleles, or parts of a gene, that originate from each parent. (Pierce, 2012, p.49) The principle of segregation is based on the "concept of dominance," or the idea that one of the two alleles a person possesses for a particular trait will be observed, and that this allele is dominant over the other. The allele that is carried but not displayed was termed by Mendel as "recessive." (Bateson, 1913, p.8) The experiments described so far incorporated only a single trait with a single set of alleles, called a monohybrid, however Mendel also took the principle of segregation a step further by combining two sets of traits, called a "dihybrid cross." (Torrey, 1922, p.72) For instance, Mendel cross-bred two pea plants, each with two sets of traits: yellow or green color and a smooth or wrinkled surface.

From these humble beginnings, a distinct discipline of biotechnology has developed which specifically deals with the mechanisms of heredity: genetics. This development has come about primarily through the use of fermentation as an industrial mechanism. The need for a better and more efficient fermentation process led to experimentation and the introduction of industrialized biotechnology. And the use of biological agents in industry then "let to formulations of an ideal for biotechnology that has lasted to the present day, having been co-opted as the new possibilities for recombinant DNA technology came to be voiced in the late 1970's." (Hessenbruch, 2000, p.85) But the most impressive result that has developed from the work of Gregor Mendel, beside the birth of genetics and the discovery of DNA, has been the Human Genome Project (HGP). The goal of the HGP has been to use the latest DNA technology to map the entire human genome, or all of the genes that constitute human DNA. As a result of years of work, the HGP has successfully identified all of the 20 to 25 thousand genes that make up human DNA, and now uses this information for research, analysis, as well as the development of new technologies. DNA technology is only one aspect of biotechnology, but it was one of the first applications to be used by humans; even before it was fully understood. And since the work of scientists and researchers like Gregor Mendel, the study of heredity has evolved into the study of genetics, which has spawned the development of a specific branch of biotechnology called DNA technology.