Unit 2 biotechnologycal systems

Pre-reading

Exercise 1. Look through the text and try to get the gist.

Exercise 2. Before reading the text memorize words and word combinations.

desired products – бажані продукти

non-virulent strain – безпечний вид

tissue plasminogen activator – тканевий плазмогенний активатор

digestive enzymes – перетравлюючі ензими

insufficiencies – недостатня кількість

intestinal tract – кишковий тракт

slow ripening tomato – повільно достигаючий томат

squash – фруктовий напій

heat and drought resistant – стійкий до спеки та посухи

starch content – вміст крохмалю

A-GROUP

Exercise 3. Write out from the text the international words and give their meanings.

Exercise 4. Give derivatives of the following verbs using as many suffixes and prefixes as possible. Translate them.

to discuss ­ ___________________________________________

to apply ______________________________________________

to produce ____________________________________________

to search _____________________________________________

to treat _______________________________________________

to compose ___________________________________________

to modify ____________________________________________

to degrade ____________________________________________

to develop ____________________________________________

to absorb _____________________________________________

Exercise 5. Read and translate the text.

Biotechnologycal systems (Applications of Biotechnology)

This discussion will focus on applications of biotechnology that use genetic engineering or rDNA technology. Genetic engineering technologies can be used to increase the amount of a protein or metabolite produced by an organism, to allow organisms that did not originally produce that protein or metabolite to do so, or toblock production of a protein or metabolite by an organism. rDNA technology allows researchers to move genetic information between unrelated organisms to produce desired products or characteristics or to eliminate undesired ones.

Medical Applications of Biotechnology

Biotechnological methods are now used to produce many proteins for pharmaceutical and other specialized purposes. A non-virulent strain of Escherichia coli bacteria, given a copy of the gene for human insulin, can make insulin; when the gene is “amplified” the bacterial cells produce large quantities of human insulin that are purified and used to treat diabetes in human beings. Human insulin, the first genetically engineered product to be produced commercially was approved for use in 1982. Since then, a number of other genetically engineered products have been approved, including human growth hormone, alpha interferon, recombinant erythropoietin and tissue plasminogen activator, and a variety of pharmacologic drugs. Microorganisms can also be engineered to produce digestive enzymes. In the future, these microorganisms could be colonized in the intestinal tract of persons with digestive enzyme insufficiencies. Similarly, persons with immune disorders could be treated with non-pathogenic microorganisms that have been genetically modified to produce antibodies.