Edexcel Biology 2105

Unit B3

Topic 1 — Biotechnology

Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing new industries in the developed world. The biotechnology industry will need highly-skilled people to work in it. This unit gives students the opportunity to study the contribution of biotechnology in the production of food and drink, and how this could impact on world food shortages, the treatment of disease and development of new medicines.

As with all new developments, advances in biotechnology raises new ethical questions which will be considered in this topic.

Guidance for students

Have you ever wondered?

Will scientists be able to make me a personalised medicine?
Who owns the medicine if the original plants come from a different country?
Are we able to cure genetic diseases?
Should you be allowed to choose the sex of your baby?
Is genetically modified food safe to eat?
Do genetically modified organisms harm the environment?
Can’t we already feed the world?
Should we be making developing countries buy new seeds every year?

Learning objectives

• The food industry has traditionally made much use of biotechnology in the production of many food items, for example cheese, yoghurt, alcohol, chocolate, soy sauce and, more recently, mycoproteins and prebiotics.
• Plants can be modified to be resistant to herbicides and/or pests and this has environmental implications.
• The pharmaceutical industry generates a lot of money annually and consideration of the contributors to this profit and its distribution is needed.
• Stem cell research must consider many ethical questions, including the definition of ‘life’.
• Organisms can be genetically modified to produce substances, including medicines, that are of direct use to human health.

Glossary
You will be expected to be able to recall, explain, describe and use appropriately the following words and phrases:

artemisinin	fermentation	insulin	prebiotics
bacteria	filtration	invertase	quinine
amino acid	ethics	herbicide	pasteurisation
biotechnology	gelling agent	lactic acid	resistance
breeding	gene	lactose	salicin
cholesterol	genetic engineering	malaria	stem cells
chymosin	genetic modification	microorganism	taxol
citric acid	genome	obesity	toxin
enzyme	genomics	oligosaccharide	vector
ester	glutamic acid	Parkinson’s disease	yeast

Information for teachers

ICT is an integral part of the way science works, and students should be given opportunities to experience and explore its use. It is expected that ICT will be used where it enhances the learning and teaching of science and helps to make scientific concepts easier to understand.

Some of the learning outcomes have been written deliberately in order to promote discussion and expression of opinion. Where contentious, unresolved or other scientific issues are discussed, it is expected that students will be exposed to the facts, evidence and opinions from all sides of the argument.

Learning outcomes

Students will be assessed on their ability to:

• distinguish between and use primary and/or secondary data
• discuss and evaluate evidence and data
• consider ethical, contemporary and social issues.

At the end of this unit students will be able to describe and explain the following statements and carry out the tasks indicated:

Food and drink

• bacteria are used in the production of yoghurt from milk by the conversion of lactose to lactic acid	B3 1.1
• the commercial production of soy sauce includes fermentation of a mixture of cooked soya beans and roasted wheat using Aspergillus, further fermentation using yeasts and then Lactobacillus, filtration, pasteurisation, sterile bottling	B3 1.2
• other functional foods are not necessarily produced by fermentation, including prebiotics such as oligosaccharides found as a food ingredient on the supermarket shelf, and ‘spreads’ that contain plant stanol esters that lower cholesterol	B3 1.3
• prebiotics are functional foods that are marketed as providing health benefits	B3 1.4
• microbial products are used in food, including: – vitamin C produced by Acetobacter spp. (bacterium) – carrageen, a gelling agent from seaweed – enzymes such as invertase produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) used in the manufacture of sweets – citric acid produced by Aspergillus niger (fungus) used in fizzy drinks – amino acids such as glutamic acid produced by Corynebacterium glutamicum (bacterium) and the flavour enhancer, monosodium glutamate (MSG), a sodium salt of glutamic acid	B3 1.5
• the production of the enzyme chymosin, produced by genetically altered microorganisms, which is used in the manufacture of vegetarian cheese	B3 1.6
• the importance of having a well-balanced diet, in terms of a healthy lifestyle	B3 1.7
• the possible consequences of being severely overweight or underweight for your height	B3 1.8
• the potential of biotechnology and evaluate in relation to world food shortage, eg kwashiorkor.	B3 1.9
Plant modification • weed control to reduce loss of food supplies by genetically modifying crops to ensure they are resistant to herbicides	B3 1.10
• the use of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a vector to transfer genes coding for herbicide resistance to the genome of a plant cell	B3 1.11
• breeding insect-resistant plants including the insertion of the toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis and inserting it into plants	B3 1.12
• the ethics of genetic modification particularly its use in developing countries.	B3 1.13
Reproduction • stem cell research and therapies as possible treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s disease	B3 1.14
• allowing people to choose the sex of their baby may skew the sex balance of the population and may lead to other choices being permitted – including colour of eyes	B3 1.15
• ethical implications of reproductive research.	B3 1.16
Pharmaceuticals • the importance and medicinal value of drugs produced by plants, including: – aspirin – compound called salicin found in the bark and leaves of willow plants used for pain-relief – taxol – derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree and used as an anti-cancer agent – quinine which comes from the bark of the cinchona tree: until the 1930s it was the only real treatment for malaria – artemisinin and its derivatives – extracted from the Chinese plant Artemsia annua used for treating malaria and reducing its transmission	B3 1.17
• consider the advantages and disadvantages of drugs derived from plant sources compared to synthetic drugs	B3 1.18
• an awareness of the potential for discovering sources of new drugs, including rainforests	B3 1.19
• the production of insulin using genetic engineering: an understanding of the role of recombinant DNA technology including restriction enzyme, ligase and sticky ends	B3 1.20
• the role of biotechnology in developing new substances, for example, the use of genomics in medical research to develop personalised medicines.	B3 1.21