Understanding Biotechnology

What is Biotechnology

Overview of Biotechnology

History of Biotechnology

Why do we do biotechnology?

Biotechnology for the environment

Biotechnology for food and agriculture

There are many stories that surround biotechnology – but how many of these are true ... and if they aren’t, what’s the real story?

GM food means that we'd be eating genes and it's not natural to eat another organism's genes.

Every organism contains genes. When we eat an apple, we eat the genes in the DNA contained within its cells. These genes in the apple are ‘foreign’ genes, but they don’t have any effect on us because they're digested. The same goes for eating meat.

Even after food is cooked, we're still consuming genes. The cooking process partially breaks the molecules of DNA; we then eat the fragments of DNA in the cooked food. During digestion, the DNA is broken down to its smallest building blocks. Processed plant or animal products, such as wheat flour or salami, still contain gene fragments from the original ingredients, which are also broken down during digestion.

It is quite natural to eat another organism’s genes – actually, it's impossible to avoid - but it doesn't mean that we absorb their genes into our sustem and acquire their characteristics. The genes in GM foods are made of the same material as the genes that we eat every day in all fruits, vegetables and meat, and are treated by the body in the same way as other genes. If you eat DNA in a GM food, or a conventional food, it won't change your DNA, or the DNA of your children.

Myth: Gene technology is inherently risky so we shouldn’t proceed with it.

In Australia, gene technology is carefully regulated so that any risks are managed and contained, while allowing its benefits to be realised.

The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator was established by the Commonwealth Gene Technology Act 2001 (GT Act), and is responsible for regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The object of the GT Act is to “protect the health and safety of people, and protect the environment, by identifying risks posed by or as a result of gene technology, and by managing those risks through regulating certain dealings with GMOs”. ‘Dealings’ with GMOs include contained laboratory research, field trials and commercial release of GM crops. 

The GT Act establishes offences for unauthorised dealings with genetically modified organisms.  If such dealings occur, offenders are subject to penalties of up $1.1 million, or 5 years imprisonment. These penalties are described in more detail in Part 4, Division 2 of the Gene Technology Act.

For more information about the OGTR and the GT Act contact the OGTR on 1800 181 030, or visit their website.

The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) protects public health by ensuring that GM foods are safe for consumption. FSANZ assesses the safety of GM foods, and all GM foods must be assessed as safe before they are allowed to be sold in Australia. 

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code provides a common set of food regulations in Australia and New Zealand, including standards for GM foods. 

Food standards have the force of law. It's a criminal offence in Australia to supply food that doesn't comply with relevant food standards. For more information about FSANZ and food standards, contact FSANZ on +61 2 6271 2222 or visit their website

Myth: Natural is always best, and altering, exchanging or transferring genes isn’t natural, so it can’t be good for us.

It's also important to remember that the way we live today isn't ‘natural’. Humans have significantly altered nature to provide a more comfortable and stable lifestyle.

In the same way, modifying plants and animals isn't strictly natural, and yet humans have done this from earliest times. Selective breeding has been used to produce different types of dog, different types of domesticated farm animals, and all of our crop species. Selective breeding is a process used to produce new or improved strains of plants and animals by selecting and breeding for valuable characteristics, such as wheat with higher protein grain.

Selective breeding using crossing can give rise to quite unexpected outcomes. This is because crossing mixes thousands of genes in unpredictable ways. The creation of new varieties by selective crossing involves extensive testing to ensure that natural toxins haven't developed.

Gene technology helps us to breed new varieties of agricultural species more easily and more quickly than in the past, as a specific gene or genes can be selected and transferred; whereas conventional breeding involves a random crossing of a number of genes, which may or may not include the gene of interest. In addition, because only a few required genes are transferred using gene technology, time consuming ‘back-crossing’ steps used in conventional breeding programs can be omitted.

As described above, new varieties created by gene technology are extensively tested before being released commercially, either for use in agriculture and industry, or for consumption as food.

Animal and human cloning also happens naturally to produce identical twins (or triplets). Modern gene technology is sometimes involved in creating clones of animals at the early embryo stage. This is similar to the process that creates identical twins.

Animals can also be cloned past the embryo stage to produce a new animal; for example, Dolly the sheep was cloned using DNA from another sheep. This is a useful way to ensure that an unusually productive or desirable farm animal can be reproduced. If the high quality animal was instead bred with another individual, it could produce offspring without the desired qualities due to the random mixing of genes that happens in the conventional breeding process.

These continual natural changes in genes — and the shuffling around of different versions of genes by sexual reproduction — cause the variation that we see in living things, and help to make every individual different. Over time, gene changes have also been responsible for evolution.

Scientists don’t yet know enough about human genetics to use gene technology to change these characteristics. Of course, the future may be different. Whether science is used in such a way must depend on how it's directed, which is why the community and our elected representatives need to be well informed and educated about the latest scientific developments.

Language provides a good analogy for this. If you re-arrange the words in an English sentence you can change the meaning. But the sentence is still written using English words; each sentence is ‘composed’ of the same stuff arranged differently — exactly as with genes. Biologists now know that every living thing on Earth uses the same genetic language — just as every book written in English uses the same English words. A ‘foreign’ language for life could exist elsewhere in the universe, but on Earth there's only one.

Because animals and plants evolved from a common ancestor, many of their gene activities are very similar. In both cases, the genes that code for making vital molecules for cells to function — for example, enzymes for extracting energy or for copying DNA — are virtually identical in any cell, from any organism, anywhere.

In fact, substances that we think of as being very much animal products can be found in plants. An example is haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying pigment that makes our blood red. The roots of various plants also have a form of haemoglobin. The tiny energy factories in cells – called mitochondria – are nearly identical in plants and animals. The genes that code for the construction and the functioning of mitochondria are virtually indistinguishable between different groups of organisms. 

The chemical similarity of plants to ourselves is the reason that we're able to use them as food. Whenever we eat plants, we eat their genes. If you eat a meal of meat and vegetables, you're eating genes from plants and from animals together.

The order of bases in human DNA is remarkably similar to that of many other organisms. The closer a creature is to us in terms of evolution, the greater this similarity. For example, about 98 per cent of our gene sequences are the same as those in chimpanzees. We also share a proportion (albeit smaller) of our gene sequences in common with plants. For this reason, adding a gene found in a plant to an animal, or vice-versa, is seen by some researchers as not breaking much of a barrier. 

Gene transfers can sometimes occur in nature — although not to the same degree that biotechnology makes possible. For example, bacteria that colonise plant roots can sometimes pass genes into plants. Viruses regularly move their genes into the cells of the organism that they are infecting. New virus particles can naturally contain fragments of the ‘host’ genes as well as their own, and may pass these on when infecting another host.

Milk, cheese and eggs contain plenty of genes from animals. For lacto-ovo-vegetarians, the possibility of an ‘animal gene’ in a plant may not be a concern. However, vegans may find it ethically wrong to eat a plant that contains a gene that is usually found only in animals. Similar ethical objections hold true for those who adhere strictly to religious dietary rules banning the consumption of certain animals (eg. pig or cow). Consumers concerned about this can contact food manufacturers for detailed information about their products, including any GM foodstuffs.