As crop plants are modified to be more weed and pest resistant, they become more and more like their wild ancestors. Genetically altered crops may also result in energy losses at the farm level. The refuges that farmers must plant to sustain populations of nonresistant pests may represent a net loss of energy.

Biotechnology and its sub discipline of genetic engineering are currently being applied to the improvement of crops themselves, the enhancement of nutrient availability, pest and disease control, the production of herbicide resistance in crop plants and tolerance to a variety of environmental stresses.

Specifically, industrial biotechnology uses enzymes and micro-organisms to make bio-based products in sectors such as chemicals, food ingredients, detergents, paper, textiles and biofuels. Since that time, industrial biotechnology has produced enzymes for use in our daily lives and for the manufacturing sector.

Biotechnology Equipment for Life Science Research

• Electrophoresis and blotting.
• Imaging and quantitation.
• Real-time PCR and digital PCR.
• Transfection.
• Flow cytometry, cell sorting, and cell counting.
• Preparative and analytical chromatography.
• Spectrophotometry and fluorometry.
• Multiplex immunoassays.

Here is a list of a genetic engineer’s molecular tools/enzymes most commonly used in genetic engineering experiments:

1. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
2. Restriction Enzymes (Molecular Scissor)
3. Gel Electrophoresis.
4. DNA Ligase.
5. Plasmids.
6. Transformation/Transduction.
7. Identifying Transgenic Organisms.

New industrial and environmental biotechnology advances are helping to make manufacturing processes cleaner and more efficient by reducing toxic chemical pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Basic Techniques to Manipulate Genetic Material (DNA and RNA) Basic techniques used in genetic material manipulation include extraction, gel electrophoresis, PCR, and blotting methods.