Question

Explain how recombinant Insulin can be produced.

Answer 1

Production of insulin by recombinant DNA technology started in the late 1970s. This technique involved the insertion of human insulin gene on the plasmids of E. coli. The polypeptide chains are synthesized as a precursor called pre-pro insulin, which contains A and B segments linked by a third chain C and preceded by a leader sequence. The leader sequence is removed after translation and the C chain is excised, leaving the A and B polypeptide chains Explain the steps involved in the production of recombinant hGH.

Using recombinant DNA technology hGH can be produced. The gene for hGH is isolated from the human pituitary gland cells. The isolated gene is inserted into a plasmid vector and then is transferred into E. coli. The recombinant E. coli then starts producing human growth hormone. The recombinant E. coli are isolated from the culture and mass production of hGH is carried out by fermentation technology.