Production
of Insulin from Bacteria
Over
the years reproduction both in animals and plants has been through transferring
of genes from parents to their offspring. Scientists have come up with a technology
known as genetic engineering. This technology involves manipulation of the
genetic composition of organisms by use of artificial methods and transferring
desired genes to other organisms of another species. The organism produced
after gene transfer is known as transgenic. Although genetic engineering has
come with success in life, it has some risks involved (Hodge, 2009).
Ding
& Barron (2011) explains that the technique of producing insulin from
genetically modified bacteria is known as recombinant DNA technology. It
involves bacterium plasmid and insulin gene from humans. Gene manipulation in
bacteria was the first genetic engineering experiment as a result of their
genetic makeup which is simple to modify. Bacteria have become useful in recent
years in the production of medicines such as insulin. Pharmaceutical industries
have made use of this technology in producing drug that is used to treat
diabetes.
The
Escherichia coli bacteria were
inserted with insulin genes from humans into their system to produce artificial
insulin that resembles human insulin to treat patients with high blood sugar. Escherichia
coli bacterium is allowed to grow in a culture rich in supplements. A plasmid
of the bacterium is obtained which is used to produce insulin that is
engineered. The bacterium plasmid obtained from E. coli is cut at a certain points
by special type of restriction enzymes (Hodge, 2009).
The
DNA which encodes the insulin of humans is then inserted into the cut plasmid
to produce recombinant plasmid. The recombinant plasmid is introduced into the
E. coli. The E. coli divides to form identical cells. Finally, the DNA in the
recombinant plasmid induces the E. coli to manufacture synthetic insulin which
is harvested and stored for treating diabetes. The engineering of bacteria gene
sequence has been a fundamental development in field of medicine to treat high
sugar levels and other human diseases (Ding & Barron, 2011).
References
Hodge, R.
(2009). Genetic engineering: Manipulating the mechanisms of life.
New York: Facts on File.
Ding, S., & Barron,
A. (2011). Engineering of collagenous proteins and protein hydrogels
for biomedical applications.
Comments