Q.What is the importance of E.Coli in biotechnology ?

E. coli is the standard host organism of genetic engineering because it is fast-growing, genetically well understood, and readily produces recombinant proteins.

E. coli is central to biotechnology for several reasons:

1. Extensively studied genetics: Its complete genome has been sequenced and its genetics, metabolism and gene regulation are very well characterised, making it easy to predict and control the behaviour of engineered strains.
2. Rapid, inexpensive growth: E. coli has a very short generation time (about 20 minutes under optimal conditions) and can be cultured cheaply in simple media, allowing large quantities of recombinant product to be produced quickly.
3. Readily takes up foreign DNA: E. coli cells can be made competent to take up plasmid DNA (transformation) efficiently, making it an ideal host for cloning vectors such as pBR322.
4. Workhorse for cloning and protein production: Because of the above properties, E. coli is used as the standard host to clone genes of interest and to express them, producing recombinant products in bulk -- most famously human insulin, but also other proteins like growth hormone, interferons and vaccine antigens. …