Biotechnology for Prelims

Environmental DNA (e-DNA) – UPSC Prelims

Environmental DNA (e-DNA): Environmental DNA or eDNA is DNA that is collected from a variety of environmental samples such as soil, seawater, snow or air rather than directly sampled from an individual organism. Example sources of eDNA include faeces, mucus, gametes, shed skin, carcasses and hair. Researchers have found that Airborne DNA (Sampling the air …

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Landraces – UPSC Prelims

Landraces: Landraces refer to naturally occurring variants of commonly cultivated crops. These are different from commercially grown crops, which are developed by selective breeding (hybrids) or through genetic engineering to express a certain trait over others. Naturally occurring landraces still have a large pool of still untapped genetic material, which can provide solutions to climate …

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dbGENVOC – UPSC Prelims

dbGENVOC: dbGENVOC is a browsable online database of GENomic Variants of Oral Cancer. The database is publicly available and is a free resource. The database will contain somatic and germline variants derived from oral cancer patients and also peer-reviewed published publications. The database also has a built-in search engine. This allows researchers to carry out analysis of identifying …

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Bt Cotton – UPSC Prelims

Bt Cotton: Bt cotton is the only transgenic crop that has been approved by the Government of India for commercial cultivation. Bt cotton has been genetically modified to produce an insecticide to combat the cotton bollworm, a common pest. Bt cotton was created by genetically altering the cotton genome to express a microbial protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. In …

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes – UPSC Prelims

What are Genetically Modified Mosquitoes(GMM)? These are the mosquitoes whose genome has been altered using recombinant DNA technology. Their genome is altered in a way to favour the few desired physiological traits and the generation of desired biological products. The desired trait of these GMM is to reduce the transmission of mosquito-borne human diseases. How does …

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Genetically Modified Crops – UPSC Prelims

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): These are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. Genetically Modified Crops: Conventional plant breeding involves crossing of species of the same genus to provide …

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