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A Brief History of Biotechnology
The term biotechnology was
coined in 1919 by a Hungarian engineer called Karl Ereky.
However, its origins date back further than that. The
history of biotechnology can be divided into two eras:
traditional and modern biotechnology. Traditional biotechnology
dates back thousands of years, to early farming societies
in which people collected seeds of plants with the most
desirable traits for planting the following year. This
practice is now known as selective breeding. The same
selective breeding practices were used by early Babylonians,
Egyptians, and Romans to improve livestock. As far back
as 6000 B.C., natural processes such as fermentation,
in which microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts and
moulds play a critical role, were used to produce bread,
beer and wine.
Gregor Mendel's study of
genetics, using seed and plant experiments at the end
of the 19th century, gave the first indications of the
cross from traditional to modern biotechnology. He discovered
that traits are transmitted from parents to offspring
by discrete, independent units, later called genes.
His observations laid the groundwork for the field of
genetics.
In 1943, the first direct
evidence that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, carried
genetic information was discovered. However, it wasn't
until 1953 that the mystery of the structure of DNA
and the way genetic information is passed from generation
to generation was unlocked by the discovery of the structure
of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick. The era of
'modern biotechnology', which involves manipulation
of genes from living organisms in more precise and controlled
ways than traditional biotechnology, began with their
discovery.
In 1985, genetically engineered
plants resistant to insects, viruses, and bacteria were
tested for the first time. Since then, many genetically
engineered plants have been developed, successfully
field tested and received food, livestock feed and environmental
safety approval in many countries, including Canada.
It was also in 1985 that a plan for mapping and sequencing
the human genome was made. The goal of this Human Genome
Initiative, which was launched in 1990, was to map all
of the 80,000 to100,000 human genes by the year 2003.
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