Use of Bacteria
- Microorganisms can be used by humans to produce foods and other useful substances
- The most common type of microorganisms used in biotechnology are bacteria
- They are useful because they are capable of producing complex molecules (eg. certain bacteria added to milk produce enzymes that turn the milk into yoghurt)
- They are also useful because they reproduce rapidly, meaning the amount of chemicals they can produce can also rapidly increase
- In addition to the benefits of rapid reproduction and the ability to make complex molecules, bacteria have other benefits in biotechnology
- There are few ethical considerations to growing them in large numbers in the laboratory
- They possess plasmids
- Plasmids are small, circular loops of DNA which can be an ideal way of transferring DNA from one cell to another during genetic manipulation
