I am a molecular biologist. Recently I happened to study evolution and ecology for one of my PhD entrance exams. Biotechnology majors have not studied ecology and evolution in detail(owing to their syllabus) in India. I have read 1 or 2 chapters of these in my school and in my 11th and 12th. When I studied these in detail, what I felt was we molecular biologists should also have a better understanding of ecology and evolution. When you are dealing with a DNA, it’s not enough to know that the DNA is from a particular species. A general awareness of its ecosystem and its evolutionary history will add a feather to our cap. I am not a scientist to comment on this authoritatively, I am just a beginner. I just wrote what I felt. I had to deal with DNAs about the source of which I was unaware of.  I had to introduce a beta carotene gene into a rice variety. This beta carotene promotes Vitamin A production and thus reduces Vit A deficiency  prevalent in rice based societies. Such a genetically modified rice with beta carotene gene was called “Golden Rice”. We tried to do this in our lab after many years of invention of golden rice. When I enquired about the source of beta carotene gene, all I got was that it was from an unknown source. The gene was getting introduced into a plant species through Agro bacterium mediated gene transfer. Here we used Agrobacterium DNA as a vector. Vectors are small DNA molecules which can carry a piece of DNA from an organism A and introduce it into an organism B. For example, a plant species which contain a foreign DNA piece in its own genome (genome is the total DNA content in an organism) is called a Genetically Modified plant (GM plant). The GM plants grown in wild can affect the ecosystem and transfer the cloned genes to other species. So a good understanding of the ecosystem and evolutionary history will give us a rough idea of the kinds of plants, animals and microorganisms, the species under consideration are interacting with. This will help us in mapping out the disasters or benefits of the probable gene transfer from GM organisms to other wild types (wild type-organisms without foreign DNA). In a country like India where there are plenty of GM crops, the GM crop cultivation is poorly monitored. A study of such a GM crop would require a fair amount of understanding of its natural ecosystem, evolutionary significance along with a thorough knowledge of biotechnology. Man cannot control the ecosystem. Maybe we could maintain a controlled condition in a laboratory, but nature takes its own course. Nature decides if a species should become extinct or a new species should be introduced-it can be seen from the geological timetable (I am not talking about species that became extinct due to human actions such as pollution, deforestation etc.). It will help a biotechnologist better if he/she knew ecology and evolution better along with all other subjects that we have to study.

We bio-technologists should also keep in mind that we are tampering with mother nature's designs. So it would be good if we knew how mother nature created them(evolution) and how she handles(ecology) them. If we are modifying her creations for the benefit of mankind, we will be responsible for its far reaching effects in the ecosystem.