Topologia Del Adn

Current Issues Molec. Biol. (1999) 1(1): 1-12.

Applications of Molecular Biology 1

The Application of Molecular Biology
Robert C. Tait Biotechnology Consultant, 2318 Cezanne Court, Davis CA 95616, USA

Molecular biology methods have tremendous value not only in the investigation of basic scientific questions, but also in application to a wide variety of problems affecting the overallhuman condition. Disease prevention and treatment, generation of new protein products, and manipulation of plants and animals for desired phenotypic traits are all applications that are routinely addressed by the application of molecular biology methods. Because of the wide applicability of these methods, they are rapidly becoming a pervasive - some would argue invasive - aspect of ourtechnologically based society. The public concerns that address the application of these methods should be addressed by informed public discussion and debate. While scientists can be extremely critical of the quality, interpretation, and significance of experimental results, they have a rather remarkable tendency to be non-judgmental of the relative social merits of many applications of scientific research. Itremains a public responsibility to be sufficiently well-informed to critically assess the merits of applied science research and participate in a communal decision-making process regarding the extent to which a new technology will be allowed to affect society.

Introduction The methods called recombinant DNA developed out of the scientific desire to address the fundamental hypothesis that thephysical traits of a cell are encoded by the nucleic acids present in the chromosomes of the cell and changes in the structure and function of nucleic acid result in changes in cellular characteristics. How has this new methodology succeeded in application to testing of fundamental scientific theories? Application of these methods to the study of developmental biology has provided significantsupport for the cell theory, which suggests that all organisms are composed of many individual cells, by allowing the investigation of the changes in gene expression that accompany the development of a mature organism. The ability to isolate, modify, and re-introduce specific genes has been instrumental in providing overwhelming evidence in support of the chromosomal theory of heredity, which suggeststhat the chromosomes within the individual cells control the physical traits of the cells. The isolation and sequence analysis of related genes from several different species and the study of the occurrence of alleles in wild populations have provided information that supports elements of the theory of evolution by natural selection, which suggests that complex organisms are derived from moreprimitive organisms by a process of accumulation of changes in physical traits of cells. Development and continued refinement of the methods of molecular biology have been critical in the explosion of information regarding the role of nucleic acids in the control of the physical traits of cells. The increased understanding of the structure and function of the genome has also resulted in the appearanceof molecular biology in everyday life.
© 1999 Caister Academic Press

2 Tait

It is important to understand that scientific research can be divided into two general categories: basic and applied research. Basic research might be described as the search for a basic understanding of a problem area, while applied research can be thought of as applying the results of basic research to generate auseful product. The scientific methods and the research topics that make up the field of molecular biology are obviously of interest to the scientific community involved in basic research, but why should these topics generate widespread interest and controversy among people who are not members of the scientific community? The increasing use of molecular biology methodology in applied research...