By: Tanishtha Nath and Hannah Lee
Green Biotechnology focuses on the agricultural and environmental fields of biotech. Agricultural biotechnology emphasizes discoveries in the science and practice of farming to better improve plants, animals and microorganisms. On the other hand, environmental biotechnology utilizes microorganisms to prevent, reduce, and treat environmental pollution; one of its major purposes is to find alternatives to traditional techniques and make those alternatives more environmentally friendly.
Agricultural Biotechnology:
Agricultural biotech can be used to identify and work with advantageous genes to improve crops and livestock. Techniques used in agricultural biotech include genetically altered plants or animals, development of transgenic plants, genetic engineering of plants, manipulation, and use of microorganisms to facilitate crop growth and producing fertile and resistant seeds.
1. Tissue Culture and Micropropagation
Micropropagation allows for the quick, exponential reproduction of disease-free progeny plants by rapidly multiplying stock plant material in tissue culture. This allows specific breeds of plants to multiply, for example, pathogen-free or seedless varieties of plants. Tools and techniques such as embryo culture*, haploid production*, and genetic transformation* are used in tissue culture. Some crops produced using tissue culture include bananas, coffee, and avocado.
2. Genetically Engineered Crops
Crop modification is a technique used to improve the quality and quantity of crops. Today, modern techniques are used. For example, molecular markers can be utilized to mark plants or animals with a desirable or advantageous gene or silence an undesirable gene; molecular markers can also be used to identify and keep track of undesirable genes. These techniques allow the hybridization of various crops to be much more efficient and specific.
3. Nutritional Contents
Agricultural biotech ensures that crops are rich with the essential nutrients in one's daily diet and also reduces malnutrition in developing countries. For example, a genetically engineered potato breed in India has ⅓ - ½ more protein than a normal potato, containing a considerable amount of all 20 amino acids. Laboratory assessments can also be completed to compare a new plant species to its counterpart for specific nutritional factors such as vitamins or toxins.
4. Agronomic Traits
Agronomy applies the science and technology of several fields—such as biology, chemistry, and ecology—to improve and better manage major food crops. Biotechnology can be used to improve these agronomic traits, for example, by eliminating toxins and allergies, in plants.
Environmental Biotechnology:
As stated previously, environmental biotech uses living organisms to solve issues regarding the environment. This includes bioremediation, development of biofuels and biofertilizers, applications in geomicrobiology, microbial ecology, solid waste management, and wastewater treatment. These can be used to minimize the output of harmful solids, liquids, or gaseous substances, and clean the residual effects of earlier human occupation. Here is a brief description of someone of the applications:
1. Bioremediation
Bioremediation is when living organisms are used to consume and break down environmental pollutants. The general approach is to enhance natural biodegradation by using native organisms to restore environmental health. Biostimulation and bioaugmentation—or applying nutrients and the addition of microorganisms—are used. Bioremediation is beneficial to the environment because it doesn’t cause excessive disruption to the environment.
2. Bioenergy and Biofuel
The conversion of biomass to heat, electricity, and biofuels is a significant application in green biotech. Bioenergy, which is energy acquired through biomass and biofuel, is considered beneficial to the environment since it’s one of the major sources of renewable energy.
3. Biofertilizers
“Biofertilizers are living microbes that enhance plant nutrition by either mobilizing or increasing nutrient availability in soils.” Biofertilizers are important as they replace agricultural practices that use toxic and harmful chemicals. More specifically, they are used as microbial inoculants or microbial preparations and improve the nutritional conditions of the soil. Some examples are rhizobium, azotobacter, and azospirillum.
Sources:
ABSP II, PBS. “Contributors to This Brief - Cornell University.” What Is Agricultural Biotechnology?, 2004, http://absp2.cornell.edu/resources/briefs/documents/warp_briefs_eng_scr.pdf.
guardian, the. “What Are Bioenergy and Biofuels – and Are They a Good Idea?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/23/bioenergy-biofuels-climate-change-faq.
Khatiwada, Bishal. “A Brief Introduction with Tools and Applications of Green Biotechnology.” Explore Biotech, 18 Jan. 2020, https://explorebiotech.com/introduction-tools-and-applications-of-green-biotechnology/.
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