Give any two reasons why the patent on Basmati should not have gone to an American Company.
The patent on Basmati should not have gone to an American Company, because of the following reasons
(i) The Basmati rice variety has been grown in India since time immemorial. Traditionally, it belongs to India.
(ii) The new variety of Basmati that got patent rights to an American Company is actually derived from 'Indian farmers variety'.
How was insulin obtained before the advent of rDNA technology? What were the problems encountered?
Insulin is used for diabetes treatment and it was earlier extracted from the pancreas of slaughtered cattle and pigs.
This insulin caused some patients to develop allergy or other types of reactions to the foreign protein.
With respect to understanding diseases, discuss the importance of transgenic animal models.
Transgenic animals are important in the following fields
(i) They are being used in basic science research to elucidate, the role of genes in the development of diseases like cancer, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis and alzheimer's.
(ii) They are valuable tools in the drug development process itself.
(iii) They can produce medicines or human proteins (insulin, growth hormone, etc.) in large quantities.
(iv) Transgenics can be a source of transplant organs as well.
Name the first transgenic cow. Which gene was introduced in this cow?
Rosie was the name of first transgenic cow. Gene for human alpha lactalbumin was introduced in its genes, which made the milk nutritionally more balanced than normal cow milk.
PCR is a useful tool for early diagnosis of an infectious disease. Elaborate.
PCR is a very sensitive technique which enables the amplification of desired DNA from a limited amount of DNA template.
Hence, it can detect the presence of an infectious organism in the infected patient at an early stage of infection (even before the infectious organism has multiplied to large number).