Biotechnology, an enabling technology, is the growing and most rapidly changing subject which has created a number of new opportunities for the upliftment of human society. It has a broad applications in many diverse aspects of basic research, industry, and commerce. It is a broad field that employs an industrial technology based on the biological synthesis of important chemical compounds, especially proteins (insulin), genetic engineering of plants and animals, and other, related technologies. It also manipulates the genetic information of an organism to allow the characteristics of that organism. The basic process consists of inserting foreign DNA carrying instructions for a valuable enzyme, hormone, or other protein into the DNA of some other organism so that the host organism makes the desired products at the same time as it makes its own proteins. With increasing knowledge of the control of gene activity, as well as new methods to insert genes into eukaryotic cells, it is possible to genetically transform the complex organisms. Genetic information has been especially successful in agriculture, and in beginning at human gene therapy has been made. Some observers feel that biotechnology promises a revolution beyond the scale of that generated by the computer. Certainly, the potential seems unlimited.

Contents :

1. Introduction
2. Cell Organisation
3. Chromosomes
4. Nucleic Acid
5. Biological Replication
6. Enzymes of DNA Synthesis
7. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)
8. RNA Biosynthesis
9. Protein Synthesis
10. Genetic Code
11. Nature of the Genetic Material
12. Concept of Gene
13. Gene Expression
14. Gene Action and Related Diseases
15. Genetic Engineering
16. Transgenic Organisms
17. DNA Cloning and Fingerprints
18. Genetic Screening
19. Genetic Counselling
20. Gene Therapy
21. Reproductive Technology
22. Genetics of Immunity
23. Protein Engineering
24. Vaccine Biotechnology
25. Plant Biotechnology
Glossary