Deoxyribonucleic acid recombinant techniques

Biotechnology is being appHed in the dairy industry. A significant and controversial development is the technique of producing transgenic animals, ie, animals in which hereditary deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been augmented by DNA from another source, using recombinant DNA (rDNA) techniques. 

Walsh (2003) defined biopharmaceuticals as therapeutic protein or nucleic acid preparations made by techniques involving recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology. Therapeutic proteins include blood clotting factors and plasminogen activators, hemopoietic factors, hormones, interferons and interleukins, and monoclonal antibodies (LeVine, 2006). Over time, the term biopharmaceutical has broadened, and, in addition to proteins and nucleic acids, now includes bacteriophages, viral and bacterial vaccines, vectors for gene therapy, and cells for cell therapy (Primrose and Twyman, 2004). Attention here focuses on proteins, since the majority of approved biopharmaceuticals are proteins. 

Recombinant-DNA organism—an organism in which the genetic material has been changed through in vitro nucleic acid techniques, including recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and recombinant ribonucleic acid (RNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells and organelles. 

Modem biotechnology has been defined as the application of a) In vitro nucleic acid techniques, including recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles, or b) Fusion of cells beyond the taxonomic family, that overcome natural physiological reproductive or recombination barriers and that are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection, in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (SCBD, 2000) and by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex, 2003a). 

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