Biotechnology and bioengineering under the loop: creativity or danger

Abstract

No achievements of modern mankind was aroused so much disaprrovals and caused so much debate as the phenomenon of biotechnology. Human intervention for the improvement of crops, trees and livestock is nothing new: for millennia, humans have bred, crossed and selected those varieties, ecotypes and breeds that were more productive, and better adapted, but conventional breeding practices can now be complemented by a number of new and powerful techniques. Modern biotechnology represent a new aspect of biological and agricultural science which provides new tools and strategies. New techniques of molecular biology, including recombinant DNA and cell fusion, have became a powerful research tools in biology. As the foundations of biotechnology, these techniques hold great promise for the development of new products derived from plants, animals and microorganisms to be employed in industry and agriculture. Molecular biotechnology, including recombinant DNA, transplastomic plants, projectile insertion, cloning, nuclear microinjection, and cell fusion, offers the potential for reaching many of the same goals pursued by traditional methods of plant and animal breeding and by mutation and selection of microorganisms, but in a more precise and efficient manner. Thanks to that biotechnology managed to penetrate and find application in all branches of industry and basic researches. The first large-scale industrial applications of modern biotechnology have been the areas of agriculture and of pharmaceuticals. Nowadays biotech methods play an increasing role in environmental protection and biofuel production. However, when we talk about biotechnology inevitably question is whether are its achievements in accordance with nature and whether can cause undesirable consequences. Genetically engineered organisms should be evaluated and regulated according to their biological properties and phenotypes, rather than according to the genetic techniques used to produce them. Nonetheless, because many novel combinations of properties can be achieved only by molecular and cellular techniques, achievements of these techniques may often be subjected to greater scrutiny than the achievements of traditional techniques.