Question

Illustrate using any one example of transgenic bacteria.

Answer 1

Genetic technology has prepared human insulin. Insulin is made up of two small polypeptide chains, chain ‘A’ and chain ‘B’ which are linked to each other by disulphide bonds. In human insulin, a pro-hormone is synthesised which contains C peptide. Mature insulin does not contain this peptide ‘C’; it separates from insulin during the maturation process. In 1983, scientists created two DNA sequences for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ chains of human insulin and put them into E. coli to make these insulin chains. We removed these separately produced chains ‘A’ and ‘B’ and joined them to each other by disulphide bonds to prepare human insulin. Insulin is a useful medicine for controlling diabetes. The credit for cloning the insulin gene goes to Dr. Saran Narang of Indian origin. He conducted his experiment in Ottawa, Canada.