Question

The first hormone artificially produced by culturing bacteria is
(a)Insulin
(b)Thyroxine
(c)Testosterone
(d)Adrenaline

Answer 1

Hint: The first hormone artificially produced through a bacteria is involved in the regulation of sugar level in blood. It is produced by the pancreas in the human body. This hormone decreases the blood sugar level.

Complete answer:
-Human insulin is the first synthetic insulin to be grown in the laboratories.
-Insulin was first used in the treatment of diabetes on 11 January 1922.
-Insulin was discovered by Sir Frederick G Banting, Charles H Best, and JJR Macleod and was subsequently purified by James B Collip.
-Human insulin is created by growing insulin proteins within E.coli bacteria in the laboratory.
-The newly constructed plasmids containing the transplanted genetic material are introduced into E. coli bacterial strain which is an expression vector.
-Once inside the bacteria, the genes are transcribed and then translated to form the protein chains found in insulin.
-Since insulin consists of two polypeptide chains(A&B) linked by disulfide bonds, genes encoding these two subunits are extracted and then placed into two different plasmids (expression vectors).
-These bacteria are then allowed to grow and replicate allowing the plasmid and the insulin gene to replicate millions of times.
-Later on, the insulin chains (A & B) are purified from their respective expression vectors and linked through a disulfide bond to make a functional insulin protein.
So, the correct answer is ‘insulin’.

Note: -This way of production of insulin by recombinant technology doesn’t cause any allergy in the person to whom this hormone is administered.
-Synthetic insulin is made in both bacteria and yeast through recombinant DNA technology.