🌾 What is Biotechnology doing for our farms?

Biotechnology uses living things (or the enzymes they make) to boost food production and quality. Researchers focus on three big jobs: (1) finding or creating the best biological catalyst, (2) giving that catalyst perfect working conditions, and (3) cleaning up (down-stream processing) to get the final product ready for use. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

🚀 Three smart ways to raise crop yields

  1. Agro-chemical farming — fertilisers & pesticides.
  2. Organic farming — nature-friendly inputs.
  3. Genetically engineered crops — tiny DNA tweaks for big gains. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

🧪 Plant Tissue Culture = Growing whole plants from tiny pieces

Totipotency 🎯

A single plant cell (an explant) can grow into a complete plant. Scientists call this super-power totipotency. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Micro-propagation 🌱

By tweaking nutrients, vitamins, and growth hormones (auxins, cytokinins), labs quickly raise thousands of identical “somaclones.” Crops such as tomato, banana, and apple already use this method on a commercial scale. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

Meristem-tip culture 🩹

Viral diseases rarely reach the shoot tips (meristems). Scientists cut out these virus-free tips and grow healthy, disease-free plants of banana, sugarcane, potato, and more. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Somatic hybridisation 🔗

Remove cell walls ➡️ fuse two naked protoplasts ➡️ grow a brand-new hybrid plant. A famous trial fused tomato + potato to make a “pomato.” (Cool idea, but the traits weren’t farm-ready yet!) :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

🧬 Genetically Modified (GM) Crops — Why bother?

  • Tolerate heat, cold, drought, and salty soils.
  • Stand up to insects, so farmers spray fewer chemicals.
  • Stay fresh longer after harvest.
  • Use soil minerals more efficiently, protecting fertility.
  • Add extra nutrition (💛 golden rice packs vitamin A!). :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
  • Even supply industry with special starches, fuels, or medicines. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

🐛 Natural Insect Shield: Bt Crops

The soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) makes protein crystals that kill specific insects. Scientists copied Bt cry genes (e.g., cryIAc, cryIIAb, cryIAb) into crops like cotton and corn. Here’s the action-plan:

  1. Plant cell produces an inactive protoxin.
  2. Caterpillar eats the leaf; its alkaline gut (pH > 7) dissolves the crystal and converts protoxin → active toxin.
  3. Toxin sticks to mid-gut cells, punches holes, the insect dies. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}

Result? Healthy cotton bolls 🧺 instead of worm-eaten ruins. 🎉

🪱 RNA Interference (RNAi) — Silencing pests from the inside

The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita slashes tobacco yield. Scientists slipped nematode-gene fragments into the plant using Agrobacterium. The plant now makes matching sense and anti-sense RNAs → they pair up into double-stranded RNA → the plant’s own machinery chops up the nematode’s message (mRNA). The nematode cannot make vital proteins and soon vanishes! 😎 :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}

🎯 High-Yield NEET Flash Points

  • Totipotency & Micro-propagation — core idea in tissue culture. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}
  • Bt cotton mechanism — protoxin activation and insect specificity. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}
  • RNA interference (RNAi) — gene silencing to fight nematodes. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}
  • Somatic hybridisation — protoplast fusion & the pomato example. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13}
  • GM crop advantages — abiotic stress tolerance, nutrient enrichment (golden rice). :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

💡 Keep these ideas handy — they pop up often in NEET biology papers!