Unit 6: Evolution (5hrs.

)
What is evolution?
• the whole ‘course of evolution’ starting with the origin of life and ending with
the current biodiversity – with some concept that there must have been
extinctions along the way
• as evolution progressed
• new species are arising
• biodiversity of the planet is increasing
• a general trend of it is towards larger and more complex organisms
• we often put ourselves right at the peak of evolution, as though things ‘could not
get any better than this’.
How did all these millions of new species appear?
• change is important when trying to explain evolution; organisms have changed
over time, i.e., they have evolved
• But why would an organism change? would it matter if just one organism
changed?
• for new species to appear, groups of organisms, the populations have to change,
not just single organisms
• for them to change, their genes must change, as the genes define what they will be
by controlling protein synthesis
• the working definition of the process of evolution as:
• the change in genetic composition of a population over successive generations,
which may be caused by
• meiosis
• hybridization
• natural selection
• mutation
• this leads to a sequence of events by which the population diverges from other
populations of the same species and may lead to the origin of a new species
6.1. Theories of origin of life
• There are five main theories of the origin of life on Earth:
• special creationism
• spontaneous generation
• Eternity of life
• cosmozoan theory
• biochemical origin
How does special creationism account for the origin of life?
• Special creation is nearly always linked to religion, whereas an acceptance of
evolution is linked to scientific thinking
• There are fundamental differences b/n the two that mean it is unlikely that the
difference b/n the scientific theory of evolution and special creation will ever be
resolved.
• Science describes the natural world around us using a means of observation and
empirical testing using instruments
• These observations then result in the development of scientific theories
• There is no attempt on the part of science to give opinions about morality or
purpose
• Religion mainly focuses on spiritual matters that, by their very nature, cannot be
seen, touched or measured effectively
• Religion deals with philosophical matter that relates to morality and concerns
between humans and their God.
• Religion is less concerned with empirical observable facts and testable hypotheses
but rather with faith, the belief in things that cannot be proven.
• Science relies on provable events; religion relies on believing in that which cannot
be proven.
• The two views are very, very different from each other even though each is a valid
worldview in its own context.
• Special creation states that at some stage, some supreme being created life on
Earth; there are many different versions of special creation, linked with different
religions.
• there is considerable variation as to how rigidly the special creation theory is
interpreted within a religion:
• Young Earth creationism
• the form of creationism that suggests the Earth is only a few thousand years old
• often believe the Earth was created in six 24-hour days
• they agree that the Earth is round and moves around the Sun, but interpret all geology
in the light of Noah’s flood
• Old Earth creationism
• There are several types of creationism that are considered Old Earth.
• They vary in different aspects of how they explain the age of the Earth while still
holding to the story found in Genesis
• Those who believe in Old Earth creationism accept the evidence that the Earth is very
old but still maintain that all life was created by God
• Day-age and gap creationism
• similar in that each interprets the beginnings of the creation story as actually
having taken much longer than six Earth days.
• Gap creation discusses a large gap b/n the formation of the Earth and the
creation of all the animals and humans; the gap could be millions or billions of
years.
• this gets around the scientific evidence that the Earth is several billion years old
without having to believe in the process of evolution itself.
• Day-age creationism is similar in the length of time but talks about each of
the six ‘days’ as really meaning a billion years or so of geologic time; the
‘days’ are just symbolic.
• Progressive creationism
• accepts the Big Bang as the origin of the Universe; accepts the fossil record of
a series of creations for all of the organisms catalogued; but, it
• does not accept these as part of a continuing process; each is seen as a unique
creation
• modern species are not seen as being genetically related to ancient ones.
• Theistic evolution/Evolutionary creationism
• maintains that God ‘invented’ evolution and takes some form of an active part in the
ongoing process of evolution
• prays the role of God in areas not discussed by science, like the creation of the
human soul
• promoted by the Pope for the Catholic Church and is also adopted by most mainline
Protestants
• Intelligent design
• This is the newest version of creationism and maintains that God’s handiwork can be
seen in all of creation if one knows where to look.
• Advocates of intelligent design offer sophisticated arguments, often based on cell
biology and mathematics, to give the impression of complex scientific arguments and
to create equal stature with mainstream scientific thought.
• These arguments attack different parts of evolutionary theory, with the idea that if one
part of evolutionary theory can be found to be incorrect then it follows that all of
evolution must be incorrect.
• The term intelligent design is used to mask the fact that it’s a form of creationism
masked in scientific-sounding ideas.
How does spontaneous generation seek to explain life on Earth?
• Spont. generation suggests that life can evolve ‘spontaneously’ from non-living
objects; e.g., people believed that rotting meat turned into flies
• Francisco Redi disproved the idea of rotting meat producing flies and Louis
Pasteur finally showed that not even micro-organisms could be produced by spont.
generation
• In Redi’s experiment, flies only appeared in the jars where flies had access in the
first place
• Exclude the flies, as he did with some jars, and the meat does not produce either
maggots or flies.
• Louis Pasteur showed that broth (or wine) only went sour if micro-organisms
were allowed to enter.
• also no micro-organisms appeared in the broth unless they were allowed to enter
from the outside – they were not formed from the broth itself
• these two scientists showed that both macro-organisms (Redi) and micro-
organisms (Pasteur) can only arise from pre-existing organisms, disproving the
theory of spontaneous generation.
What about the first ever cell?
• Unless we believe that life is eternal, with no beginning and no end, there had to
be a first cell
• it could not have come from a pre-existing cell because it was the first
• scientists have proposed a method whereby the necessary components of life
could be formed and believe that, somehow, they managed to assemble themselves
into a primitive cell
this is a kind of spontaneous generation
• How does the eternity of life theory seek to explain life on Earth?
• there is no beginning and no end to life on Earth and so it neither needs special
creation nor does it need to be generated from non-living matter.
• Supporters of this theory believe that life is an inherent property of the Universe and
has always existed – as has the Universe
• At the time when such theories were being advocated, many eminent scientists –
including Albert Einstein – believed that the Universe was unchanging.
• They reasoned that ‘if life is found today in an unchanging Universe, then it must
always have been there’
How does the cosmozoan theory seek to explain life on Earth?
• life has reached this planet Earth from other cosmological structures, such as
meteorites, in the form of highly resistant spores; proposed by Richter in 1865
and supported by Arrhenius in 1908 and by other contemporary scientists.
• The theory did not gain any significant support as it lacks evidence
• It is strongly linked to the ‘eternity of life’ theory of the origin of life on Earth.
• In the 19th century, Hermann Richter put forward the idea that life has always
existed in the Universe, propagating itself from one place to another by means of
‘cozmozoa’ (germs of the cosmos)
• In this theory, life has existed and will exist for all eternity across the Universe,
and so there is no need for an explanation of its origin
• In 1908, the Swedish physical chemist Svante Arrhenius put forward a new
version of the cosmozoan theory, and gave it the name panspermia
• Arrhenius’ contribution was a new theory of the mechanism by which life could be
transported b/n planets; he proposed that bacterial spores were propelled through
inter-planetary space by radiation pressure
• Previous versions of the theory had assumed transport was by means of meteorites
or by comets; however, the very high temperatures that meteorites create on
entering the Earth’s atmosphere seemed to rule this out
• In Arrhenius’ version of the theory, spores arriving at the Earth (possibly attached
to grains of interstellar dust) could fall slowly to the ground without being
subjected to high temperatures due to air friction
• One of the motivations for Arrhenius’ panspermia theory was that it also seemed
to provide a solution to the disproof by Louis Pasteur’s experiments of
spontaneous generation in bacteria.
• If there was no way in which the origin of life could be explained, it was
reasonable to suppose that life was an inherent property of the Universe and had
always existed.
• Arrhenius’ theory was dropped by most scientists when it became apparent that
the bacterial spores would be subject to UV radiation and X-radiation, zones of
charged particles, which would without doubt destroy them.
• However, another version of the cosmozoan theory or panspermia does have
some evidence to back it up.
• This version – called weak panspermia/pseudo-panspermia – is the theory that
organic compounds arrived from outer space and added to the chemicals on Earth
that gave rise to the first life
• In 1969 a meteorite landed in Australia that was 12% water and contained traces
of 18 amino acids; this evidence points:
• to the presence of organic compounds in outer space,
• to the capacity of such compounds to reach Earth
• also, complex organic molecules have been detected in star-forming clouds,
further adding to the evidence for organic molecules in space.
How does the biochemical theory seek to explain life on Earth?
• life may have evolved on Earth as a result of biochemical reactions (abiogenesis)
• this owe much to two biologists working early in the 20th century:
• Aleksandr Oparin, a Russian biologist who first put forward his ideas in 1924
• John Haldane, an English biologist independently put forward identical ideas in 1929
• both suggested that:
• primitive atmosphere of the Earth was a reducing atmosphere with no free oxygen –
as opposed to the oxygen-rich atmosphere of today
• there was an appropriate supply of energy, such as lightning or ultraviolet light, and
this would provide the energy for reactions that would synthesize a wide range of
organic compounds, such as amino acids, sugars and fatty acids.
• Oparin -suggested that the simple organic compounds could have undergone a
series of reactions leading to more and more complex molecules
• He proposed that the molecules might have formed colloidal aggregates, or
‘coacervates’, in an aqueous environment
 • the coacervates were able to absorb and assimilate organic compounds from the
environment in a way similar to the metabolism of cells
• these coacervates were the precursors of cells and would be subject to natural
selection, eventually leading to the first true cells
• Haldane’s -ideas about the origin of life were very similar to that of Oparin
• He proposed that the primitive sea served as a vast chemical laboratory powered by
solar energy.
• As a result of all the reactions powered by solar energy, the sea became a ‘hot dilute
soup’ of organic monomers and small polymers.
• Haldane called this the ‘prebiotic soup’, and this term came to symbolize the
Oparin–Haldane view of the origin of life.
But is there any evidence for the theory?
• In 1953, Stanley Miller conducted his now-famous spark-discharge experiment
• he passed electric sparks repeatedly through a mixture of gases that were thought
to represent the primitive atmosphere of the Earth; these gases were
• methane (CH4 )
• ammonia (NH3 )
• water (H2O) and
• hydrogen (H2 )
• When he analyzed the liquid in the water trap, he found it contained a number of
simple organic molecules like hydrogen cyanide (HCN)
• He found that by leaving the equipment for longer periods of time, a larger variety
and more complex organic molecules were formed including:
• amino acids – essential to form proteins
• pentose sugars – needed to form nucleic acids
• hexose sugars – needed for respiration and to form starch and cellulose
• hydrogen cyanide again – nitrogenous bases found in nucleotides can be synthesized in
the laboratory using HCN as a starting point
• this is the evidence that supported the Oparin–Haldane hypothesis; it has its own
problems; these include:
• Why are only ‘left-handed’ amino acids found in living things when both left-handed
and right-handed types are possible?
• Although nitrogenous bases can be synthesized in the laboratory, purines (adenine and
guanine) are not synthesized under the same conditions as pyrimidines (thymine, uracil
and cytosine); this is quite a serious problem for the theory
 • although Miller was able to demonstrate the formation of monomers in his
investigation, he was unable to demonstrate the next significant step of
polymerization of these monomers
• In 2009, John Sutherland found that, instead of making the nitrogenous base and
sugar separately from chemicals likely to have existed on the primitive Earth,
under the right conditions the base and sugar could be built up as a single unit (a
nucleotide)
• It has also been shown that polymerization can occur under appropriate conditions
and a solution is in sight for the ‘handedness’ problem like that of Miller
• The biologist John Desmond Bernal suggested that there were a number of clearly
defined ‘stages’ in explaining the origin of life:
• Stage 1: the origin of biological monomers
• Stage 2: the origin of biological polymers
• Stage 3: the evolution from molecules to cell
• Bernal suggested that evolution may have commenced at some time b/n stages 1
and 2 those have been demonstrated as being possible in the conditions of the
primitive Earth, and research on stage 3 is well advanced
• Other ideas on the biochemical theory William Martin Dusseldorf and Michael
Russell Glasgow claim that cells came before the complex organic molecules
• Not living cells but inorganic ones made of iron sulphide,
• formed not at the Earth’s surface but at the bottom of the oceans
• In their theory, a fluid rich in compounds such as hydrogen, cyanide, sulphides
and carbon monoxide emerged from the Earth’s crust at the ocean floor
• It then reacted inside the tiny metal sulphide cavities
• They provided the right microenvironment for chemical reactions to take place;
that kept the building blocks of life concentrated at the site where they were
formed rather than diffusing away into the ocean
• thus, the iron sulphide cells are where life began
• Archaebacteria are found in extreme conditions, e.g.,
• Thermophilic bacteria are found at temperatures that would kill other cells
• Methanobacteria can live in high concentrations of methane
• Halobacteria can live in high concentrations of salt
How did autotrophs evolve on Earth?
• However the first organisms appeared – about 4 billion years ago – they were
prokaryotes those had no true nucleus
• It seems likely also that they had RNA rather than DNA as their genetic material
• It seems likely that they gave rise to three distinct lines of evolution leading to:
• archaebacteria – prokaryotes including thermophilic sulphobacteria,
methanobacteria and halophilic bacteria
• eubacteria – prokaryotes; ordinary bacteria and cyanobacteria (blue-green bacteria
and sometimes known as blue-green algae)
• eukaryotes – eventually evolving into protoctistans, fungi, plants, animals (nearly all
are aerobic)
• One great change that affected the evolution of early life forms was the shift from
the reducing atmosphere to an atmosphere containing oxygen; this took place
about 2.4 billion years ago
Where did this oxygen come from?
• There is only one process that can produce it – photosynthesis
• The fossil record shows that cyanobacteria had been producing oxygen by
photosynthesis from about 3.5 billion years ago
• but for almost 1 billion years the levels in the atmosphere did not rise, because the
oxygen was absorbed by the vast amount of iron in the Earth – it rusted!!
• But, by 2.4 billion years ago, the concentration began to rise and the rate of
increase accelerated from 2.1 billion years ago
• Cyanobacteria are photo-autotrophs; they use light as a source of energy, and
CO2 as a source of carbon (photosynthesis)
• They are among the earliest autotrophs, using, not chlorophyll, but another
pigment, phycocyanin (which gives them their blue green appearance), to capture
light energy.
• Other primitive autotrophs used not light as a source of energy but chemical
reactions and are called chemo-autotrophs that use energy from chemical
reactions to synthesize all necessary organic compounds, starting from CO2
• They generally only use inorganic energy sources
• Most are bacteria or archaea that live in hostile environments such as deep sea
vents and are the primary producers in ecosystems on the sea beds.
• It is believed that the first organisms inhabited Earth were chemo-autotrophs;
the primitive sulphobacteria use hydrogen sulphide as the energy source
• Hydrothermalism, particularly in deep sea vents, maintains the bacterial life of
sulphobacteria and/or methanobacteria.
• Bacteria are the only life forms found in the rocks 3.5 to 2.1 billion years ago
• Eukaryotes became numerous 1.9 to 2.1 billion years ago and fungi-like organisms
appeared about 0.9 billion years ago
• The oxygen produced by the photo-autotrophs had made it possible for aerobic
respiration to evolve as an energy-releasing pathway; this releases more energy
than does the anaerobic pathway
• more active organisms could now evolve – animals, perhaps 600 to 700 million
years ago
What theories of evolution are there?
• evolution - change in genetic composition of a population over successive generations,
which may be caused by meiosis, hybridization, natural selection or mutation
• this leads to a sequence of events by which the population diverges from other
populations of the same species and may lead to the origin of a new species.
But how does it happen? What drives the population to become a new species?
• Over time there have been many theories that have attempted to explain this
• current thinking owe on natural selection to the ideas of Charles Darwin, who put
forward the idea to the Royal Society in 1858
• His paper suggested that those organisms that were best adapted to their environment
would have
• an advantage and be able to reproduce in greater numbers than other types
• pass on the advantageous adaptations to the next generation
• because he knew nothing of genetics, he was unable to suggest how this might take place
• for many years in Europe, the Christian belief had stated that Earth and all species
had been created about 6,000 years ago; in the mid 1700s, George Buffon
challenged this idea, suggesting that:
• the Earth was much older than this
• organisms changed over time in response to environmental pressures and random events
• at the time Buffon had no evidence to back them up and, as a result, could not
convince people
• Lamarck, having read Buffon’s ideas and made the first major advance towards
modern evolutionary thinking because he proposed a mechanism by which the
gradual change in species might take place
• In 1809, he published a paper entitled ‘Philosophie Zoologique’, in which he
described a two-part mechanism by which change was gradually introduced into
the species and passed down through generations
• His theory is called the ‘theory of transformation’ or, ‘Lamarckism’
• The two parts of his theory are: Use & disuse and Inheritance of acquired traits
Use and disuse
• Lamarck suggested that by continually using a structure/process, that structure or
process will become enlarged or more developed; conversely, any
structure/process that is not used or is little used will become reduced in size or
less developed.
• E.g., he used to explain the concept of use and disuse is the elongated neck of the
giraffe; a given giraffe could, over a lifetime of straining to reach high branches,
develop an elongated neck.
• but, Lamarck could not explain how this might happen; he talks about a ‘natural
tendency towards perfection’ – but this is not really an explanation
• Another example Lamarck used to illustrate his idea was the toes of water birds.
• He suggested that from years of straining their toes to swim through water, these
birds gained elongated, webbed toes to improve their swimming
• These two examples demonstrate how use could change a trait.
 He used the wings of penguins as an example to illustrate what might happen to a
structure with disuse; their wings would have become smaller than those of other
birds because penguins do not use them to fly
Inheritance of acquired traits
• Lamarck believed that traits changed or acquired during an individual’s lifetime
could be passed on to its offspring
• Giraffes that had acquired long necks would have offspring with long necks rather
than the short necks their parents were born with.
• This type of inheritance, sometimes called Lamarckian inheritance, has since
been disproved by the discoveries of genetics.
• However, Lamarck did believe that evolutionary change takes place gradually and
constantly.
• He studied ancient seashells and noticed that the older they were, the simpler they
appeared.
• From this, he concluded that species started out simple and consistently moved
towards complexity, or, as he termed it, closer to perfection.
• Is this the inheritance of acquired traits after all? Well, maybe, but certainly not in
the way that Lamarck meant it.
• in 1858, Charles Darwin published his famous paper on Natural Selection.
• He had developed the idea some twenty years earlier, but was afraid of the ridicule
the idea might receive
• In 1858, another biologist, Alfred Russell Wallace, had come to similar
conclusions and they jointly published the scientific paper that changed the
thinking on the origin of species for ever
• Some of Darwin’s evidence came from a visit to the Galapagos Islands, a small
group of islands in the Pacific Ocean; he visited five of the Galapagos Islands and
made drawings and collected specimens.
• In particular, Darwin studied the finches found on the different islands and noted
that there were many similarities b/n them and the obvious differences
• He concluded that an ‘ancestral finch’ had colonized the islands from the
mainland and, in the absence of predators, they able to adapt to the different
conditions on the islands and, eventually, evolve into different species
• Some of the finches had evolved into insect eaters, with pointed beaks
• Others had evolved into seed eaters with beaks capable of crushing the seeds
• One hundred and fifty years later geneticists have been able to confirm Darwin’s
ideas and even produced a ‘family tree’ based on the similarity of their DNA.
• Biologists wanted to test how well the finches were adapted to their ‘niche’.
• They analyzed the sizes of the seeds eaten by three different ground finches.
• Darwin called this ‘descent with modification’ now, called as ‘adaptive
radiation’ that believed to be the key evidence in support of his theory of natural
selection
• Darwin summarized his observations in two main ideas:
• all species tend to produce more offspring than can possibly survive
• there is variation among the offspring; from these observations he deduced that:
• there will be a ‘struggle for existence’ b/n members of a species (because they over-
reproduce, and resources are limited)
• Some members of a species will be better adapted than others to their environment
(because there is variation in the offspring)
• Combining these two deductions, Darwin proposed:
• those members of a species which are best adapted to their environment will survive
and reproduce in greater numbers than others less well adapted.
• this is his now-famous theory of natural selection
6.2. Theories of mechanisms of evolution
• What are the different types of natural selection?
• modern view of natural selection is stated briefly below:
• Those members of a species which are best adapted to their environment will
survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others less well adapted.
• They will pass on their advantageous alleles to their offspring and, in successive
generations, the frequency of these alleles will increase in their gene pool.
• The advantageous types will, therefore, increase in frequency in successive
generations.
• Natural selection is the ‘driving force’ behind evolution; it is the process that
brings about changes (over time) in populations that can, eventually, lead to
different populations of the same species becoming different species
• humans are a different species from chimpanzees; but the different races of
humans are all members of the same species. Why?
• current definition of -species is a group of similar organisms with a similar
biochemistry, physiology and evolutionary history that can interbreed to
produce fertile offspring
• this explains why all humans are members of the same species, but belong to a
different species from the chimpanzee.
How can there be different types of natural selection?
• all types of natural selection work in the same manner, but their influence on a
population is different; the different types of selections are:
• directional selection
• stabilizing selection
• disruptive selection
What is directional selection?
• A feature may show a range of values; individuals at one extreme could have a
disadvantage whereas those at the other extreme have an advantage
• E.g., thicker fur (longer hair) in foxes is an advantage in a cold climate; thinner fur
in foxes is an advantage in a hot climate
• If the environment were to change so that it became significantly colder, or a
group of the foxes were to establish a population in a new, colder environment,
there would be a selection pressure in favor of the foxes with long fur and against
those with short fur.
• Over time, selection operates against the disadvantaged extreme and in favor of
the other extreme.
• The frequency of the alleles causing longer fur will increase; there are now no
foxes with the very shortest fur – they could not survive in the new environment.
• But there are foxes with fur lengths that are longer than any of those in the original
distribution; where have they come from?
• They must be the result of either: new mutations, or new combinations of alleles
In either case, if they had existed in the original population, they would have been
disadvantageous as they would prevent the foxes from being able to cool
themselves effectively and so would have died
What is stabilizing selection?
• In a stable environment, individuals at both ends of the range of values for a
feature are the least well adapted.
• Selection often operates against both these extremes to reduce the variability in the
population and to make the population more uniformly adapted.
• Birth mass in humans is an example. Babies who are very heavy or very light
show a higher neonatal mortality rate (die more frequently at, or just after, birth)
than those of medium mass.
• Over time, selection is operating to reduce the numbers of heavy and light babies
born.
What is disruptive selection?
• Disruptive selection is, in effect, the converse of stabilizing selection.
• In the above example, individuals at both extremes (heavy & very light) of a range
have some advantage over those displaying the mean value
• as a result, the frequency of those individuals at the extremes of the range will
increase over time and those in the middle of the range will decrease over time.
• this is part of the explanation of the evolution of Darwin’s finches
a finch with an ‘average’ length beak may not be able to obtain insects out of
cracks in the bark of trees as well as one with a longer beak.
• It may also not be able to crush seeds as well as one with a shorter, more powerful
beak.
• Over time, those with the thinner, longer beaks and those with the shorter, more
powerful beaks will increase in numbers, whilst those with average length beaks
will decrease in numbers
• Figure 4.33 summarises the different types of selection.
6.3. Speciation through natural selection
• Natural selection provides a mechanism by which new populations of a species
can arise
• If two populations become so different that individuals from different populations
cannot interbreed; then they are different species
• There are many ways through which this can occur; the two main ways are:
• allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation
• as long as two populations are able to interbreed, they are unlikely to evolve into
distinct species; they must go through a period when they are prevented from
interbreeding
• both allopatric and sympatric speciation involve isolating mechanisms that
prevent different populations from interbreeding for a period of time
• during this period, mutations that arise in one population cannot be passed to the
other
• as a result of this, and different selection pressures in the different environments,
genetic differences b/n the two populations increase
• Eventually, the two populations will become so different that they will be unable
to interbreed; they are said to be ‘reproductively isolated’ and become distinct
species
What is allopatric speciation?
• the species become isolated by some physical feature; e.g.,
• a river changing course
• a mountain range being created
• a land mass separating two bodies of water
This is a type of geographical isolation
• Interbreeding b/n the populations becomes impossible; speciation could result
• E.g., the shrimp population of the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean,
which were once joined.
• about 3 million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama was formed and separated
them, and at the same time created two populations of shrimps, one on either side
of the isthmus
• The shrimps from either side of the isthmus still look remarkably similar, but they
do not interbreed with each other; they are also extremely aggressive to each other.
• Two distinct species have evolved from one original species as a result of
geographical isolation and allopatric speciation
What is sympatric speciation?
• Speciation need not involve physical separation.
• The two diverging populations may inhabit the same area, but be prevented from
breeding in a number of ways, including:
• seasonal isolation – members of the two populations reproduce at different times of the year
• temporal isolation – members of the two populations reproduce at different times of the day
• behavioral isolation – members of the two populations have different courtship patterns
• Speciation following any of these methods of isolation is referred to as sympatric
speciation
• E.g., palm trees growing on Lord Howe Island off the east coast of Australia.
• The soil on the island is in parts volcanic and in other parts calcareous; palms
growing on the different soils developed different breeding seasons (as a result of
nutrient availability at different times)
• As a result they were reproductively isolated and developed into two different
species
• Interestingly, the process also involves disruptive selection
• Plants in the original population showed tolerance to a range of pH values.
• However, since the soil was either alkaline (the calcareous soil) or acidic (the
volcanic soil), plants at the extremes of the pH tolerance range were at an
advantage and were selected for.
What is polyploidy and why is it important in plant evolution?
• You have already met the terms diploid (chromosomes in pairs – there are two sets
of chromosomes in a cell) and haploid (chromosomes are single – there is just one
set of chromosomes in a cell).
• Poly- means many; polyploid cells have many sets of chromosomes per cell –
sometimes four sets, sometimes eight or more.
• Some human liver cells have 92 chromosomes per cell – they are tetraploid – they
have four sets of chromosomes per cell
• Polyploidy has been important in plant evolution because it has allowed otherwise
infertile hybrids to become fertile again.
• When different species form hybrids, very often the hybrid cannot produce
offspring because all the chromosomes cannot form bivalents (homologous pairs)
in meiosis
• So they cannot form sex cells and cannot reproduce.
• If the chr. number were to double, then all chr. are able to form homologous pairs
• Meiosis and sex-cell formation can take place and the hybrid is now fertile.
• Hybridization and polyploidy have both been important in the evolution of
modern wheat from wild grasses.
• Hybrid is infertile because each cell contains one set of chromosomes (7) that
came from Aegilops squarrosa and one set of chromosomes (14) that came from
Triticum durum.
• Clearly, with 21 chromosomes per cell, there are not enough chromosomes for
them all to form homologous pairs – even if they were homologous.
• But when the hybrid doubled its chromosome number, there were two of each
chromosome.
• Now homologous pairs can form in meiosis and the hybrid is fertile.
• Triticum vulgare is one form of modern wheat
• Polyploidy, in addition to restoring fertility to infertile hybrids, often results in
bigger plants with more and bigger seeds.
What are divergent evolution and convergent evolution?
• We have looked so far at mechanisms that drive speciation. Now we shall turn our
attention to the situations that dictate the lines along which speciation progresses
in a given situation.
What is divergent evolution?
• Divergent evolution is another name for a process we have already met – adaptive
radiation.
• In divergent evolution, a basic type ‘diverges’ along different lines because of
different selection pressures in different environments.
• If different selection pressures are placed on populations of a particular species, a
wide variety of adaptive traits may result.
• If only one structure on the organism is considered (such as a limb), these changes
can either improve the original function of the structure, or they can change it
totally.
• Divergent evolution leads to the development of a new species. Examples of
divergent evolution (adaptive radiation) include:
• • the evolution of the different species of finches on the Galapagos Islands
• • the evolution of the different forms of the pentadactyl limb
What is convergent evolution?
• Convergent evolution takes place when different organisms occupy similar niches.
• The selection pressures on the populations are the same and so similar adaptations
evolve over time.
• One example is the convergent evolution of the giant armadillo, giant pangolin,
giant anteater and spiny anteater.
• They are not related evolutionarily, but all feed on ants and must obtain the ants
from narrow cracks in the ground.
• The similarity between the four is the result of convergent evolution. The same
selection pressures result in similar structures appearing in unrelated organisms.
• Convergent evolution is also responsible for the wings of a bird, a bat and the
extinct pterodactyl.
6.4. Modern theories of evolution
• The central argument of Darwin's theory of evolution starts from the existence of
hereditary variation; experience with animal and plant breeding demonstrates that
variations can be developed
• variations must occur in nature that are favorable/useful in some way to the
organism itself in the struggle for existence; favorable variations are ones that
increase chances for survival and reproduction
• advantageous variations are preserved and multiplied from generation to
generation at the expense of less advantageous ones; this process is known as
natural selection
• outcome of the process is an organism that is well adapted to its environment
• Biological evolution is the process of change and diversification of organisms over time,
and it affects all aspects of their lives: morphology, physiology, behavior , ecology
• Underlying these changes are changes in the hereditary material (DNA); hence,
evolution consists of changes in the organism's hereditary makeup
• Thus, modern evolution is the fusion of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian
evolution that resulted in a unified theory of evolution; referred to as Neo-
Darwinian theory
• developed by a number of now-legendary evolutionary biologists in the 1930s and 1940s
• introduced several changes in how evolution and evolutionary processes were imagined
• proposed a new definition of evolution as "changes in allele frequencies within populations ,
" thus emphasizing the genetic basis of evolution
• alleles are alternate forms of the same gene, characterized by differences in DNA sequence
that result in the construction of proteins that differ in amino acid composition
• four forces of evolution were identified as contributing to changes in allele frequencies; these
are
• random genetic drift
• gene flow/migration
• mutation pressure
• natural selection
• of these, natural selection— by which the best-adapted organisms have the highest
survival rate—is the only evolutionary force that makes organisms better adapted to their
environments
• Genetic drift describes random changes in allele frequencies in a population; it is
particularly powerful in small populations.
• Gene flow describes allele frequency changes due to the immigration and emigration of
individuals from a population
• Mutation is a weak evolutionary force but is crucial because all genetic variation arises
originally from mutation, alterations in the DNA sequences resulting from errors during
replication or other factors
• Modern evolution recognized that the majority of mutations are deleterious ( harmful
effect), and that mutations that are advantageous usually have a small phenotypic effect
• advantageous mutations may be incorporated into the population through the process of
natural selection
• there is greater opportunity for such mutations to be better adaptive; the
consequences of mutations depend on the environment
• e.g., Increased melanin pigmentation may be advantageous to inhabitants of
tropical Africa, where dark skin protects them from the Sun's ultraviolet, but it is
not beneficial in Europe, where sunlight is low
• mutation rates are low, but new mutants appear continuously in nature because
there are many individuals in every species and many genes in every individual
• the storage of variation, arisen by past mutations is important; thus, when new
environmental challenges arise, species are able to adapt to it
• e.g., more than two hundred insect species have developed resistance to the
pesticide DDT in different parts of the world where spraying has been intense
• they adapted to it rapidly by means of mutations that allowed them to survive in its
presence.
• Mutations are important in introducing variation into populations
• Any mutation could produce an allele which:
• confers a selective advantage; the frequency of the allele will increase over time
• is neutral in its overall effect; the frequency may increase slowly, remain stable or decrease (the
change in frequency will depend on what other genes/alleles are associated with the mutant allele)
• is disadvantageous; the frequency of the allele will be low and could disappear from the population
• But Neo-Darwinism doesn’t just take into account the knowledge of genetics
• It also encompasses the understanding of animal behavior – sometimes referred to as
ethology
• Many ethologists and also evolutionary psychologists believe that it is not just physical
features that can confer an advantage, but that behavior patterns can also be advantageous
– or not.
• As such, a behavior pattern that confers a survival advantage will be selected for, whilst
those that do not will be selected against.
• E.g., an advantageous behavior is imprinting in geese.
• Young geese (goslings) ‘imprint’ upon the first moving object that they see after hatching, and
follow it everywhere; since this will almost certainly be ‘mother goose’ there is survival advantage
in following her; the young goslings will be fed and protected.
• Any goslings that do not show this behavior pattern are much less likely to survive
There are several differences between Modern and the older Darwinian
conception of evolution
• First, mechanisms of evolution other than natural selection are recognized as playing
important roles
• Second, the Modern one succeeds in explaining the persistence of genetic variation, a
problem that Charles Darwin struggled with
The dominant genetic theory of Darwin's time was blending inheritance, in
which offspring were thought to be the genetic intermediates (in-between
versions) of their two parents
As Darwin correctly recognized, blending inheritance would result in the rapid
end of genetic variation within a population, giving natural selection no material to
work with
Incorporating Gregor Mendel's particulate theory of inheritance, in which the
alleles of a gene remain separate instead of merging, solves this problem
Summary on Modern evolution
• Variation
• In all species, individuals differ in their genetic makeup, producing many variations
in their physical features (phenotypes); individuals in a population vary from each
other
• These happen by meiosis, chromosomal rearrangement, mutations, etc.
• Inheritance
• Individuals pass some of their genetic material to their offspring; parents pass on their
traits to their offspring
• Selection
• Some individuals have inherited character (genes) that allows them to better survive
or produce more offspring.
• These offspring, in turn, are more likely to survive and create offspring of their own.
• As a result, their genes become more common in the entire population; some variants
reproduce more than others.
• Time
• Over time, selection results in changes in species.
• These changes may take days, or decades, or millions of years to occur; successful
variations accumulate over time.
Unit 7: Biotechnology (6hrs.)

• biotechnology is technology that utilizes biological systems, living organisms or

• Biotechnology, often referred to as biotech, has existed since the beginning of

• E.g., Brewing and baking bread processes that fall within the concept of
biotechnology (use of yeast (= living organism) to produce the desired product
7.1. Scope and definition
• Biotechnology is the use of micro-organisms to make things that people want,
often involving industrial production.
• Biotechnology has always been extremely important; it involves ways of making
and preserving foods and making alcoholic drinks.
• Traditional applications of biotechnology involve brewing beers, making wines,
making bread, and making cheese and yoghurt.
• Modern applications of biotechnology include using genetic engineering to
change crops and animals; producing new medicines; and helping to provide new
energy sources.
• It has enormous significance in helping people to improve and control their lives.
• Biotechnology is based on microbiology that study micro-organisms – tiny living
organisms including bacteria, viruses, fungi and protoctista, which are usually too
small to be seen with the naked eye.
• With the arrival of new technologies such as genetic engineering, micro-
organisms are becoming more useful all the time.
• Not all types of micro-organism are used in biotechnology; the main groups are
bacteria and fungi, although viruses are being used more and more for genetic
engineering.
• bacteria are single-celled organisms that are much smaller than the smallest plant
and animal cells.
• In ideal conditions, they can reproduce very quickly.
• Viruses are even smaller than bacteria; they do not carry out any of the normal
functions of living things
• Moulds and yeasts are both fungi – living organisms which obtain their food from
other dead or living organisms.
• Yeasts are single-celled organisms, while moulds are made up of thin, thread-like
structures called hyphae.
• Developing new applications of biotechnology is one of the fastest growing
industries around the world, and is beginning to grow in Ethiopia too.

• It is easy to think that biotechnology is very new, but much of it has been in use
for thousands of years.

• People have used micro-organisms to make food and drink almost as far back as
our records go; e.g.,
• Bacteria are used in the manufacture of yoghurt and cheese

• Yeast is used to make many traditional Ethiopian fermented foods, including bread, and also to
produce alcoholic drinks
Genetic engineering
• a process in which the genome of an organism is altered, usually by having an
extra gene from a different organism added.
• The organism is then a genetically modified or a transgenic organism.
• Much of the early work on genetic engineering was done to genetically modify
bacteria; this was often done with the aim of altering the bacteria so that they
would make a useful product
• One of the first of these products to be produced by transgenic bacteria was human
insulin
• The gene that controls the production of human insulin was extracted from human
pancreas cells and transferred to the bacteria.
• Once modified, the bacteria were then cultured on a massive scale in a fermenter
and the insulin harvested and purified before distribution
• Genetically modified bacteria produce a range of products, including:
• enzymes for the food industry
• thermostable enzymes for washing powders
• human insulin
• human growth hormone
• vaccines (for example, for prevention of hepatitis B)
• bovine somatotrophin (to increase milk yield and muscle development in cattle)
• Plants have also been genetically modified so that they:
• are disease resistant
• have an improved yield
• produce a specific product
• e.g., golden rice is genetically modified rice that produces beta-carotene – important
in the formation of vitamin A, which prevents night blindness
• Fewer animals have been genetically modified, but genetically modified salmon
and Tilapia fish grow bigger and faster than the non-modified fish and could
prove to be an important source of protein in some regions of Africa
• Other animals have also been genetically modified to produce specific products;
this is sometimes called ‘pharming’
• Most of the genetic modifications that have been carried out have been with the
aim of improving yield of a crop plant or a stock animal, or changing organisms so
that they will produce a useful product – like insulin
• Genetic engineering has many potential benefits; some of these are described
below:
• Disease could be prevented by detecting people/plants/animals that are genetically
prone to certain hereditary diseases, and preparing for the inevitable.
• It may be possible to treat infectious diseases by implanting genes that code for
antiviral proteins specific to each antigen.
• Genetically engineered plants and animals can be produced to give increased growth
rates and reduced susceptibility to disease.
• This would reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides and the chemical pollution that
results from their use.
 • Animals and plants can be ‘tailor made’ to show desirable characteristics.
• Genes could also be manipulated in plants, for example, to absorb more CO2 and
reduce the threat of global warming
• Genetic engineering could increase genetic diversity, and produce more variant
alleles which could also be crossed over and implanted into other species.
• It is possible to alter the genetics of wheat plants to grow insulin, for example.
• Genetic engineering is a much quicker process than traditional selective breeding
• This often took many generations to bring about the desired improvement; a single
gene transfer may achieve the same result
New applications of biotechnology
• new applications of biotechnology take place in an industrial setting
• Many advances in agriculture are the result of one of the most important new areas
of biotechnology – genetic engineering (genetic modification):
• used to change an organism and give it new characteristics which people want to see
• involves changing the genetic material of an organism
• Genetic material carries the instructions for a new organism, found in the nucleus of
every cell
• take a small piece of information – a gene – from one organism and transfer it to the
genetic material of a completely different organism
• example, a gene from one of our cells can be ‘cut out’ using enzymes, and transferred
to the cell of a bacterium
• our gene carries on making a human protein, even though it is now in a bacterium
• Scientists have found that genes from one organism can be transferred to the cells
of another type of animal or plant at an early stage of their development
• as the animal or plant grows, it develops with the new, desired characteristics from
the other organism
• A lot of new biotechnology relies on growing large numbers of micro-organisms
on an industrial scale in large vessels, known as fermenters.
• If a lot of micro-organisms are grown together, they can easily use up all the
oxygen available and even poison each other with waste products.
• Industrial fermenters usually have a range of features to overcome the problems
that stop a culture growing satisfactorily.
• They react to changes, keeping the conditions as stable as possible.
• This, in turn, means we can obtain the maximum yield.
• Industrial fermenters usually have:
• an oxygen supply – to provide oxygen for respiration by the micro-organisms
• a stirrer – to keep the micro-organisms in suspension, maintain an even temperature, and make
sure oxygen and food are distributed evenly through the culture
• a water-cooled jacket – to remove the excess heat produced by the respiring micro-organisms
– any rise in temperature is used to heat the water, which is constantly removed and replaced
with more cold water
• measuring instruments – for continuous monitoring of factors such as pH and temperature so
that adjustments can be made if necessary
• There are many different areas where new biotechnology – and in particular
genetic engineering – is very important
7.2. Agricultural biotechnology
• For many years, we have used selective breeding to change our livestock and
crops.
• We select animals or plants with characteristics we want, such as big grains,
resistance to disease or plenty of milk, and breed from them.
• Gradually, the characteristics change to what we want.
• But selective breeding takes time, and there are limitations to it.
• By using genetic engineering, we can introduce new characteristics very rapidly.
• Engineered genes can be used to improve the growth rates of plants and animals.
• They can be used to improve the food value of crops.
• Genetic engineering has been used to make crop plants that are resistant
• to drought and to disease
• to produce plants that make their own pesticide chemicals
this means the farmer has to use less insecticide, which saves money and protects the
environment.
• Much of the research into genetically engineered crops and animals has been
carried out in countries like the UK and the USA.
• here in Ethiopia our scientists are increasingly working with these new
technologies.
• At the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and Ethiopian Universities,
scientists are analyzing the genes of many of our most important crop plants,
including teff.
• E. A. R. I. is using modern biotechnology to improve teff, coffee, fruit plants and
some of our forest trees for commercial cultivation.
• However, there are some possible problems with the new biotechnologies, so we
must be careful, e.g.,
• insects may become pesticide-resistant if they eat a constant diet of pesticide-forming plants.
• genes from genetically modified plants and animals might spread into the wildlife of the
countryside, which could make difficulties
• genetically modified crops are often not fertile, which means farmers have to buy new seed
each year.
• But if these problems can be overcome, biotechnology offers us the hope of better
crops and more food, both for our own people and to sell internationally.
• The new biotechnology is often used in food processing; one of the biggest
changes is that enzymes are produced by genetically engineered bacteria, and
the enzymes are then used in the production of processed foods and drinks.
• Enzymes are used to clarify beer and to break down starch converting the sugars
into glucose syrup
• It has been used to create a completely new food based on fungi; it is known as
mycoprotein, which means ‘protein from fungus’
• It is produced using the fungus Fusarium, which grows and reproduces rapidly on
a relatively cheap sugar syrup in large, specialized fermenters.
• It needs aerobic conditions to grow successfully, and can then double its mass
every five hours or so.
• The fungal biomass is harvested and purified; then it is dried and processed to
make mycoprotein, a pale yellow solid with a faint taste of mushrooms
• It is a high protein, low-fat meat substitute used by vegetarians, people who want
to reduce the fat in their diet, and people who just want to eat cheap protein
• Scientists in Ethiopia and elsewhere are trying to develop a local equivalent of
mycoprotein, looking at different plants and fungi that have a relatively high
protein content
Food production using bacteria
• People began to domesticate animals quite early in human history.
• They soon realized that the milk female animals made for their babies could
be used as food for us too.
• People have used milk from many different types of animal, including
cows, sheep, goats, camels and horses.
• However, there is one big drawback in using milk as part of the diet – it
very rapidly goes off, smelling and tasting disgusting!
• It didn’t take people long to discover ways of changing milk, turning it into
milk-based foods with a much longer life than the original milk.
• These changes depend on the action of microorganisms. Yoghurt has long
been a staple part of the diet in the Middle East and Africa including
Ethiopia.
• Cheese has also been around for a very long time almost all over the world.
Making yoghurt
• traditionally, yoghurt is fermented whole milk; it is formed by the action of
bacteria on the lactose (milk sugar) in the milk.
• To make yoghurt, add a starter culture of the right kind of bacteria to warm milk.
• Often this starter culture is just a small amount of yoghurt have been already made
• The mixture needs to be warm so the bacteria begin to grow, reproduce and
ferment
• As the bacteria break down the lactose in the milk, they produce lactic acid, which
gives the yoghurt its sharp, tangy taste; this is known as lactic fermentation
• The lactic acid produced by the bacteria causes the milk to clot and solidify into
yoghurt.
• The action of the bacteria also gives the yoghurt a smooth, thick texture.
• Once the yoghurt forming bacteria have worked on the milk, they also help
prevent the growth of other bacteria that normally send the milk bad.
• Yoghurt, if it is kept cool, will last almost three weeks before it goes bad.
• Ordinary milk lasts only a few days – and then only if it’s kept really cold.
• Once you have made your basic yoghurt, you can mix in flavorings, spices and
fruit
7.3. Medical biotechnology
• extremely important in modern medicine; it is used to develop vaccines and to create
new medicines
• The first medicine that really relied on microbiology was penicillin, one of the best-
known medicines in the world, and has revolutionized medicine in the time since it was
first manufactured.
• In 1928 Alexander Fleming, a young researcher at St Mary’s Hospital in the UK, left some
plates on which he was culturing bacteria uncovered near an open window.
• When he remembered to look at them, he found bacteria were growing on the surface
of his dishes, as he expected.
• But Fleming also noticed spots of mould growing, and around these were clear areas of
agar. The bacteria were no longer growing there.
• Fleming found that the micro-organism which had invaded his Petri dishes was a
common mould called Penicillium notatum.
• He managed to extract a tiny amount of the chemical that killed the bacteria, and used it
to treat an infected wound
• He called his extract penicillin; but it was very hard to extract, and very unstable once
extracted, so Fleming decided he wouldn’t be able to obtain useful amounts of penicillin
from his mould.
• Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were working at Oxford University in the UK in a
desperate search to find a drug to kill the bacteria
• They used Fleming’s moulds and finally managed to extract enough penicillin to
show what it could do.
• They wanted to manufacture it in large amounts, but the yield of drug was very
poor.
• Fleming’s original mould, Penicillium notatum, was extremely difficult to grow in
large cultures, yielding only one part penicillin for every million parts of
fermentation broth.
• Then a mould growing on a melon in a market was found to yield 200 times more
penicillin than the original. What is more, it grew relatively easily in deep tanks,
making large-scale production possible.
• By 1945, enough penicillin was made each year to treat seven million people.
• Modern strains of Penicillium moulds give even higher yields; it is grown in huge
10 000 dm3 fermenters, and still saves many thousands of lives every year.
• When genetically engineered bacteria are cultured on a large scale, they can
make huge quantities of protein; they are used to make a number of drugs and
hormones used as medicines
• These genetically engineered bacteria make exactly the protein needed, in exactly
the amounts needed, and in a very pure form.
• For example, people with diabetes need supplies of the hormone insulin.
• It used to be extracted from the pancreas of pigs and cattle, but it wasn’t quite
the same as human insulin, and the supply was quite variable.
• Both problems have now been solved by the introduction of genetically
engineered bacteria that can make human insulin
• Biotechnology also makes it possible to develop vaccines more easily.
• A number of sheep and other mammals have been engineered to produce life-
saving human proteins in their milk; these are much more complex proteins than
those produced by bacteria, and have the potential to save many lives.
• For example, genetically modified sheep can make special blood-clotting proteins
in their milk.
• These can be used for people with hemophilia, so they are no longer at risk from
receiving contaminated blood.
7.4. Industrial biotechnology
• Industrial Biotechnology is the application of biotechnology for the
industrial processing and production of foods, chemicals, materials and
fuels.
• Everyone needs fuel of some sort to provide them with energy.
• It might be direct energy such as heat to cook on, or it might be indirect
energy – heat being used to make electricity, for example.
• However, there is only a limited amount of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and
gas for us to use, even wood and peat are becoming scarce.
• Around the world, we all need other, renewable forms of fuel.
• The generation of biogas from human and animal waste is becoming
increasingly important in both the developing and the developed world.
• This depends on biotechnology
What is biogas?
• Biogas is a flammable mixture of gases, formed when bacteria break down plant
material, or the waste products of animals, in anaerobic conditions.
• It is mainly methane, but the composition of the mixture varies depending on
what is put into the generator and which bacteria are present.
• Around the world, millions of tonnes of faeces and urine are produced by animals
like cows, pigs, sheep and chickens; we produce our fair share of waste materials
too!
• Also, in many parts of the world, plant material grows very rapidly
• Both the plant material and the animal waste make up a potentially enormous
energy resource – but how can we use it?
• To produce biogas, you collect dung or plant material, which contains a high level
of carbohydrates, and put it into a biogas generator or digester.
• Then you add a mixed population of many different types of bacteria which are
needed to digest the carbohydrate.
• The bacteria you use are similar to those in the stomachs of ruminants such as
cows or sheep.
• Some of the bacteria break down the cellulose in plant cell walls.
• Others break down the sugars formed, to produce methane and other gases.
• The biogas produced is passed along a pipe into your home, where you burn it to
produce heat, light or refrigeration.
• The bacteria involved in biogas production work best at a temperature of around
30 °C, so biogas generators tend to work best in hot countries.
• However, the process generates heat (the reactions are exothermic); this means
that if you put some heat energy in at the beginning to start things off, and have
your generator well insulated to prevent heat loss, biogas generators will work
anywhere.
• Some generators are so simple, they are little more than a big plastic bag and
some pipes; yet they can make a big difference to our lives.
• most biogas generators around the world operate on a relatively small scale,
supplying the energy needs of one family, a farm, or at most a village.
• What you put into your small generator has a big effect on what comes out.
• Biogas units are widely used in China, where there are well over 7 million biogas
units, producing as much energy as 22 million tonnes of coal.
• Waste vegetables, animal dung and human waste are the main raw materials.
• These Chinese digesters produce excellent fertilizer, but relatively low-quality
biogas.
• In India, there are religious and social taboos against using human waste in bio-
digesters
• As a result, only cattle and buffalo dung is put into the biogas generators.
• This produces very high-quality gas, but much less fertilizer.
• There are also different sizes and designs of biogas generator.
• The type chosen will depend on local conditions. For example, many fermenters
are sunk into the ground, which provides very good insulation.
• Others are built above ground, which may be easier and cheaper, but offers less
insulation; if night-time temperatures fall too low, it could cause problems
• Many countries are now looking at biogas generators, and experimenting with
using them on a larger scale.
• The waste material produced from sugar factories, sewage farms and rubbish tips
all has the potential to act as a starting point for the production of biogas.
• some problems to overcome with scaling the process up, but the early progress
looks promising.
• Biogas could well be an important fuel for the future for all of us.
• It would help us to get rid of much of the waste we produce, as well as providing
a clean and renewable energy supply.
• More biofuels In countries such as Ethiopia, plants grow quickly.
• Sugar cane grows about 4–5 meters in a year, and has a juice which is very high in
carbohydrates, particularly sucrose; maize and sweet potatoes also grow fast.
• We can break down the starch in maize kernels or potato tubers into glucose,
using the enzyme carbohydrase.
• We can convert the carbohydrates we grow into clean and efficient fuels.
Ethanol-based fuels
• If sugar-rich products from cane and maize are fermented anaerobically with
yeast, the sugars are broken down incompletely to give ethanol and water
• ethanol extracted from the products of fermentation by distillation, and you can
then use it in cars and other vehicles as a fuel.
• Car engines need special modification to be able to use pure ethanol as a fuel, but
it is not a major job
• Many cars can run on a mixture of petrol and ethanol without any problems at all.
Advantages and disadvantages of ethanol as a fuel
• In many ways, ethanol is an ideal fuel, efficient, and does not produce toxic gases
• It is much less polluting than fuels, which produce CO, SO2, and NO
• In addition, ethanol can be mixed with petrol to make a fuel known as gasohol
• This is increasingly being done, and reduces pollution levels considerably,
although there is still some pollution from the petrol part of the mix.
• Using ethanol as a fuel is a carbon-neutral activity; this means there is no overall
increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when you burn ethanol.
• the original plants removed carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis
• the difficulty with using plant-based fuels for our cars is that it takes a lot of plant
material to produce the ethanol
• as a result, the use of ethanol as a fuel has largely been limited to countries with
enough space, and a suitable climate, to grow a lot of plant material as quickly as
possible.
• Here in Ethiopia, there is such capability
• The main problem for many countries is finding enough ethanol; if people in
Europe added 5% ethanol to their fuel, it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions
• but they would need 7.5 billion liters of ethanol a year, which they cannot produce
themselves
• The methods of ethanol production we use at the moment leave large quantities
of unused cellulose from the plant material.
• To make ethanol production work financially in the long term, we need to find a
way to use this cellulose.
• We might develop biogas generators, which can break down the excess cellulose
into methane, another useful fuel
• Genetically engineered bacteria or enzymes may be able to break down the
cellulose in straw and hay and make it available for yeast to make more ethanol
• We don’t know exactly what the future will hold, but it seems likely that ethanol-
based fuel mixes will be part of it.
• Here in Ethiopia the Ministry of Mines and Energy has already started mixing
ethanol with petrol to provide fuel for cars.
• Along with the production of biodiesel from plants such as castor oil beans and
jatropha, which grows in dry climatic conditions that do not suit crop production,
• Ethiopia is making great strides in the use of biofuels.
• As long as we maintain a balance b/n the use of land to provide food and the use
of land to provide us with fuel,
• the use of biotechnology in this way has great potential for us in the future.
7.5. Environmental biotechnology
• Environmental biotechnology is a system of sciences and engineering knowledge
related to the use of microorganisms and their products in the:
• prevention,
• treatment, and
• monitoring of environmental pollution through solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes
• bio-treatment
• bioremediation of polluted environments
• Biomonitoring, etc.
• Examples of environmental biotechnology applications include
• the use of bacteria to break down pollutants in water and soil
• the use of algae to absorb excess nutrients from wastewater
• the use of fungi to decompose organic matter in landfills, etc.