Human Welfare: Diseases and Food Production

Ans: Biofortification is the process of producing new varieties of improved quality crops. The two principal methods of biofortification are – selective breeding and genetic modification. Examples of biofortified crops are rice bathua spinach, wheat, maize, and pulses. 

Ans: Athletes use the drug to improve their performance in sports but they have their long term side effects as they can adversely affect the normal functioning of the internal organs.

Ans: Biopesticides are the microbes that are used as pesticides and biofertilizers are the microbes that are used as fertilizers to reduce environmental degradation.  Microbes such as azotobacter, azospirillum, rhizobium, etc are used as biofertilizers to enhance soil nutrients by fixing the content of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. Bacillus thuringiensis acts as a biopesticide and checks the growth of insects and pests. Many plant pathogens use Trichoderma which is a fungal species and acts as a birth-control agent. 

Ans: The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is to secure the plants from disease and initiate their growth but they contain excess toxic chemicals. These chemicals when used in excess not only affect the plants but are also harmful to human health and the environment which is why microbes are recommended to be used as an alternative. 

Bacillus thuringiensis and rhizobium are microbes that control pest infestation and initiate plant growth by retaining soil fertility, and have no side effects on human and plant health. 

Ans: There are two types of immunities- innate immunity and adaptive immunity.

Innate immunity is the immediate protection provided by the body when a person is attached to an antigen. Nonspecific defense mechanisms can be seen by the functioning of the skin, white blood cells, hydrochloric acid in the stomach, etc.

Adaptive immunity is a specific defense mechanism provided by the body that involves two types of cells such as b cells or bone marrow cells and T cells which are also a kind of bone marrow cell but it develops in the thymus. 

Ans: Biological control of pests and diseases contributes to biology and human welfare as it is eco-friendly and it uses specific resources to detect the growth of pathogens and pests in the ecosystem. Some of the examples are:

• Trichoderma acts against certain soil-borne pathogens of the plant
• Penicillin is used to check the growth of several pathogens because it restricts the growth of staphylococcus. 
• The species-specific narrow-spectrum insecticidal application uses baculovirus as a biological control agent.
• In order to control insects, bacillus thuringiensis is used as a biopesticide.

Ans: Tissue culture assists in the quick and efficient growth of crops. Some of the advantages of tissue culture over conventional plant breeding are as follows:

• It helps in the cultivation of embryos that do not inside seeds
• Saplings without virus can be obtained from meristem culture
• Mitotic division enables all the cells to have the same genotype and a clone as they are formed from a single explant
•  Micropropagation helps in the rapid production of a large number of plantlets 
• Tolerance of stress can be obtained in a culture medium with the addition of salts, toxins, etc.

Ans: Cancer can be detected in an early stage in the following ways:

• Identification of antigens that are responsible for cancer
• Cancer of internal organs can be detected by MRI, CT, and radiography
• The increase in blood counts may lead to blood cancer
• Histo-pathology and biopsy of tissue, bone marrow, and blood

The treatments of cancer are:

• Chemotherapy
• Radiotherapy
• Surgery
• Immunotherapy