Biological warfare

Examples of Biological warfare in the following topics:

• Biological Weapons

  • Biological warfare (BW) is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents with the intent to kill or incapacitate.
  • Biological warfare (BW) — also known as germ warfare — is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals, or plants as an act of war .
  • Entomological (insect) warfare is also considered a type of BW.
  • There is an overlap between BW and chemical warfare, as the use of toxins produced by living organisms is considered under the provisions of both the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
  • Offensive biological warfare, including the mass production, stockpiling, and use of biological weapons, was outlawed by the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

• Biological Control of Microbes

  • Examples of such biological control included bacteriotherapy, bacteriophage therapy, malaria therapy, probiotics, and the use of living maggots .
  • The biological control of human infections was largely restricted to the treatment of surface infections of the skin and mucous membrane.
  • Modern studies suggest that the use of biological control in the treatment of human infections should be re-evaluated in the light of the increasing world-wide occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the opportunities provided by recent developments in gene technology.

• Overview of Biotechnology

  • Biotechnology is the use of biological techniques and engineered organisms to make products or plants and animals that have desired traits.
  • In its broadest definition, biotechnology is the application of biological techniques and engineered organisms to make products or modify plants and animals to carry desired traits.
  • Bioindustry refers to the cluster of companies that produce engineered biological products and their supporting businesses.
  • Biotechnology refers to the use of the biological sciences (such as gene manipulation), often in combination with other sciences (such as materials sciences, nanotechnology, and computer software), to discover, evaluate and develop products for bioindustry.

• Bioinformatic Analyses and Gene Distributions

  • Bioinformatics is the study of methods for storing, retrieving and analyzing biological data.
  • Bioinformatics is a branch of biological science dealing with the study of storing, retrieving and analyzing biological data like nucleic acid (DNA/RNA) and protein sequence, structure, function, pathways and genetic interactions .
  • At the beginning of the "genomic revolution," the term bioinformatics refered to the creation and maintenance of a database to store biological information like nucleotide and amino acid sequences.
  • In order to study how normal cellular activities are altered in different disease states, the biological data must be combined to form a comprehensive picture of these activities.
  • The primary goal of bioinformatics is to increase the understanding of biological processes.

• Clostridial and Propionic Acid Fermentation

  • Acetogenesis is a biological reaction wherein volatile fatty acids are converted into acetic acid, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen.
  • Acidogenesis is a biological reaction wherein simple monomers are converted into volatile fatty acids.
  • Acetogenes is a biological reaction wherein volatile fatty acids are converted into acetic acid, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen .
  • Finally, methanogenesis is a biological reaction wherein acetates are converted into methane and carbon dioxide, and hydrogen is consumed.
  • Biohydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced biologically, most commonly by algae, bacteria, and archaea.

• Annotating Genomes

  • Genome annotation is the process of attaching biological information to sequences.
  • It consists of two main steps: identifying elements on the genome, a process called gene prediction, and attaching biological information to these elements.
  • Functional annotation consists of attaching biological information to genomic elements: biochemical function, biological function, involved regulation and interactions, and expression.
  • These steps may involve both biological experiments and in silico analysis.
  • Identifying the locations of genes and other genetic control elements is often described as defining the biological "parts list" for the assembly and normal operation of an organism.

• Confocal Microscopy

  • The key to the confocal approach is the use of spatial filtering techniques to eliminate out-of-focus light from biological samples.
  • The slices are then stacked (Z-stack) to reconstruct the three-dimensional image of the biological sample.
  • The biological sample to be studied is stained with antibodies chemically bound to fluorescent dyes similar to the method employed in fluorescence microscopy .

• Nitrogenase and Nitrogen Fixation

  • Nitrogen fixation also refers to other biological conversions of nitrogen, such as its conversion to nitrogen dioxide.
  • Biological nitrogen fixation was discovered by the German agronomist Hermann Hellriegel and Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck.
  • Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) occurs when atmospheric nitrogen is converted to ammonia by an enzyme called nitrogenase.

• Microbial Environments and Microenvironments

  • The extraordinary biological diversity among microbes reflects their ability to occupy every habitable environment on the planet.
  • Clearly, microbes have adapted to extreme and intolerant conditions, and it is this adaptation that has yielded tremendous biological diversity among microorganisms.

• Damage to Proteins and Nucleic Acids

  • A bacteriostatic agent is a biological or chemical agent that stops bacteria from reproducing by targeting DNA replication and proteins.
  • A bacteriostatic agent or bacteriostat, abbreviated Bstatic, is a biological or chemical agent that stops bacteria from reproducing, while not necessarily harming them.