No achievements of modern mankind was aroused so much spit and caused so much debate as the phenomenon of biotechnology. Human intervention for the improvement of crops, trees and livestock is nothing new. For millennia, humans have bred, crossed and selected those varieties, ecotypes and breeds that were more productive, better adapted or particularly useful, but conventional breeding practices can now be complemented by a number of new and powerful techniques. Modern biotechnology represent a new aspect of biological and agricultural science which provides new tools and strategies. New techniques of molecular and cellular biology, including recombinant DNA and cell fusion, have became a powerful research tools in biology. As the foundations of biotechnology, these techniques hold great promise for the development of new products derived from plants, animals and microorganisms to be employed in industry and agriculture. Molecular and cellular biotechnology (including recombinant DNA, transplastomic plants, projectile insertion, cloning, nuclear microinjection, and cell fusion) offers the potential for reaching many of the same goals pursued by traditional methods of plant and animal breeding and by mutation and selection of microorganisms, but in a more precise and efficient manner. During the last few years, considerable progress has been made in biotechnology research, and further major scientific and technological breakthroughs are expected for the future. Thanks to that biotechnology managed to penetrate and find application in all branches of industry and basic researches. The first large-scale industrial applications of modern biotechnology have been the areas of agriculture and of pharmaceuticals. Nowadays biotech methods play an increasing role in environmental protection and biofuel production. However, when talking about biotechnology inevitably question is whether are its achievements in accordance with nature and whether can cause undesirable consequences. Genetically engineered organisms should be evaluated and regulated according to their biological properties and phenotypes, rather than according to the genetic techniques used to produce them. Nonetheless, because many novel combinations of properties can be achieved only by molecular and cellular techniques, products of these techniques may often be subjected to greater scrutiny than the products of traditional techniques.

biotechnology; research areas; application

Presentation: oral