Biotechnology and Its Applications

Biotechnology and Its Applications turns the tools of the previous chapter into real-world products, and it is a NEET and CBSE favourite — a near-certain 2-3 NEET questions and a strong candidate for a 3- or 5-mark Board question on Bt cotton, insulin or gene therapy. It runs across four themes: applications in agriculture (tissue culture, totipotency and micropropagation, somatic hybridisation, genetically modified crops, Bt crops and the cry genes, and pest resistance through RNA interference), applications in medicine (genetically engineered human insulin, gene therapy for ADA deficiency, and molecular diagnosis by PCR and ELISA), transgenic animals (and their five main uses), and the ethical issues of biotechnology (GEAC, biopiracy, and the Basmati and neem patent disputes). The chapter rewards precise recall of named examples — Bacillus thuringiensis and the cry genes, Meloidogyne incognita and RNAi, Eli Lilly's insulin, the 1990 ADA gene therapy, Rosie the transgenic cow — set against a clear grasp of the underlying mechanism. By the end you should be able to explain how the Bt toxin kills an insect, how RNAi protects a plant, how recombinant insulin is assembled, and why biopiracy matters.