BIOL 2051 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Diabetes Mellitus Type 1, Herbicide
Document Summary
Use microbes to express genes: produce eukaryotic proteins in large amounts. Use microbial gene products: microbes have huge diversity of enzymes. Immunize against pathogens: use genes from pathogens. Insulin is required for those with type i diabetes & many with type ii diabetes. Prior to genetic engineering, insulin was harvested & purified from pig or cow pancreas; nonhuman insulin is less effective. Human insulin was 1st human protein made commercially using engineered bacteria: identical in every way to human produced insulin. Today engineered yeast is used to make insulin. Bacteria were found that were resistant to this herbicide. The gene for the herbicide resistance was put into crop plants (soybeans, corn, cotton)- transgenic plants. Bacillus thuringensis produces chemical (bt-toxin) that is toxic to larvae of moths, butterflies, beetles, flies. Gene for bt-toxin was put into cotton & potato plants: expressed in leaves of plant, kills only insects that feed on those crops, eliminates need to spray chemical pesticides.
