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BIOLOGY [5 Mark Question Answer]

Biotechnology Applications · ICSE STD 9 (ICSE - English Medium). 2 questions.

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[5 Mark Question Answer]

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Question 15 Marks
Give five applications of biotechnology in the field of medicine.
Answer
Five applications of biotechnology in the field of medicine are:
  1. Antibiotics - Antibiotics are chemical substances, which are produced by some microbes and can kill or retard the growth of other pathogenic microbes, without harming the host. Biotechnology has helped us to obtain pure and large amounts of antibiotics from microbes. Examples of antibiotics obtained from microbes are penicillin, tetracycline, streptomycin etc. The world's first discovered antibiotic penicillin is produced by Penicillium species of fungi. It destroys bacteria causing tonsillitis, sore throat, gonorrhea, local infections and pneumonia.
  2. Vaccines - Vaccines are killed or weakened pathogens employed to provide immunity against the diseases caused by them. Using biotechnology, we have been able to produce cheaper, purer, safer and more potent vaccines.
  3. Antibodies - Antibodies against disease causing pathogens can be obtained through clone cultures. These help to provide immunity against diseases.
  4. Hormones - Using recombinant DNA technology, humans have succeeded in producing several important hormones. For example - The bacteria E.coli have been successfully used to produce large quantities of human insulin. This is a boon to the many diabetic patients who are deficient in insulin and hence are unable to control their blood sugar. Also this was an improvement over the earlier used animal insulin which was expensive and allergic to many people.
  5. Diagnostic kits - Today many diagnostic kits are available for detecting many diseases especially those caused by parasites. These kits give more reliable and quicker results easily.
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Question 25 Marks
Give four industrial applications of biotechnology.
Answer
Four industrial applications of biotechnology are:
  1. Biotechnology is used to produce various alcoholic beverages like wine, beer, whisky, brandy and rum. For this purpose, brewer's yeast is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices. Depending on the type of the raw material used for fermentation and the type of processing, different types of alcoholic drinks are obtained.
  2. Biotechnology also helps in the commercial production of non-alcoholic beverages like tea and coffee. Here microbes are used in a fermentation process called curing.
  3. Vinegar i.e. acetic acid is obtained by the fermentation of fruit juices.
  4. A number of organic acids like citric acid, lactic acid, butyric acid etc. are obtained by biotechnological methods by employing several acid producing microbes.
  5. Biotechnological techniques help in the production of certain enzymes for industrial use. For example proteases, lipases and amylases are obtained from cultures of yeasts like Saccharomyces and Torula and certain bacteria.
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[5 Mark Question Answer] - BIOLOGY STD 9 Questions - Vidyadip