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Meaning
The insertion of unrelated genetic information in the form of DNA into cells. Genetic transfer is the mechanism by which DNA is transferred from a donor to a recipient.
Reasons why
The treatment of diseases using gene transfer to supply patients with therapeutic genes. The ability to exchange genetic material between two cells is essential for the evolution of life.
Reasons why
Unlike eukaryotic cells, prokaryotic cells have a single circular chromosome that is not contained within a nucleus. Bacteria are haploid and reproduce by simple binary fission; one cell gives rise to two new cells. Gene transfer represents a relatively new possibility for the treatment of rare genetic disorders and common multifactorial diseases by changing the expression of a person's genes.
Vertical Gene Transfer:The transfer of genetic material to offspring, or the inheritance of genes by subsequent generations, is an essential basis of the evolutionary process. Somatic Gene Transfer: Somatic gene transfer involves adding genes to cells other than egg or sperm cells.
So far,horizontal gene transfer can only be demonstrated under optimized laboratory conditions. It was shown that horizontal transfer of genes from plants into bacteria occurs extremely infrequently, and it is therefore difficult to detect. Ongoing safety research is studying transgenic plants to see if horizontal gene transfer to microorganisms is possible, common, or if it would cause any considerable consequences.
Transformation
The uptake of naked DNA is a common way of horizontal gene transfer that can mediate the exchange of any part of a chromosome; this process is most common in bacteria that are naturally transformable; typically only short DNA fragments are exchanged. The process of transformation happens when a bacterial cell picks up a piece of DNA from its environment and incorporates it into its chromosome.
Transduction
The transfer of DNA by phage requires that the donor and recipient share cell surface receptors for phage binding and thus is usually limited to closely related bacteria; the length of DNA transferred is limited by the size of the phage head. Transduction is the process by which a bacterial phage (virus) picks up a piece of DNA from one bacterial cell and injects it into another where it is incorporated into the chromosome.
Conjugation
The third process, conjugation, occurs when one bacteria transfers DNA to another bacteria. The transfer of DNA mediated by conjugal plasmids or conjugal transposons; requires cell to cell contact but can occur between distantly related bacteria or even bacteria and eukaryotic cells; can transfer long fragments of DNA.
Each of these methods of genetic exchange can introduce sequences of DNA that share little homology with the remaining DNA of the recipient cell.
Mosaic Cell
an allele that has acquired, through transformation and subsequent integration into the original allele, a DNA sequence from a different species of bacteria; composed of sequence polymorphisms identical to the original allele in some parts of the gene but polymorphisms derived from the integrated DNA in other parts.(taken as it is)*from third reference
The desired gene is attached to a viral vector, which has the ability to carry the gene across the cell membrane.
Ethical Concerns
In cases in which the gene has failed to be introduced or fails to be activated, the resulting child would likely be no worse off than he or she would have been without the attempted gene transfer. The problems resulting from errors caused by the gene insertion could be severe - even lethal - or they might not be evident until well after the child has been born, perhaps even well into adulthood, when the errors could be passed on to future generations.
Article:Direct Transfer of Plant Genes from Chloroplasts into the Cell Nucleus
Chloroplasts, the plant cells green solar power generators, were once living beings in their own right. This changed about one billion years ago, when they were swallowed up but not digested by larger cells. Since then, they have lost much of their autonomy. As time went on, most of their genetic information found its way into the cell nucleus; today, chloroplasts would no longer be able to live outside their host cell. Scientists in Ralph Bocks team at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology have discovered that chloroplast genes take a direct route to the cell nucleus, where they can be correctly read in spite of their architectural differences. A genes jump from the chloroplast genome into that of the nucleus is made visible here through the development of antibiotic resistance. In the two green shoots, the resistance gene has migrated into the cell nucleus, where it can be correctly read, thus allowing the plant to grow on an antibiotic-containing medium.
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/News/2012/04/Direct-Transfer-o
forerunners of green chloroplasts in plant cells. They do not possess a true cell nucleus, but their genetic substance is made up of the same four building blocks as that of humans, plants and animals. Therefore, the genes encoded in the chloroplast DNA can also be read in the cell nucleus; indeed, many genes that were still found in the cell organelles during early evolution are now located exclusively in the genome of the nucleus. How they made their way there has previously been unclear. Two mechanisms appeared likely: either direct transport in the form of DNA fragments from the chloroplasts to the nucleus or transport in the form of mRNA, which is then transcribed back into DNA. The direct transfer of DNA appears to predominate in the chloroplasts, but this pathway raises two problems. The first problem lies in the promoters, the DNA sequences which ensure that genes are recognised as such. They are located upstream of the genes and recruit proteins that are required for transcription of the genes. However, promoters from chloroplasts are not recognised as such by the proteins in the nucleus, so that the DNA reading machinery should overlook these incoming genes. The second difficulty is in the correct processing of the gene sequence. Genes consist of several modules, separated by non-coding DNA regions (introns). Since the introns obstruct protein synthesis, they need to be removed from the mRNA, a procedure described as splicing. The whole process, ending in synthesis of the correct protein, can resume only once this has taken place. Once again, however, the mRNA is processed differently in the cell nucleus than in the chloroplasts, and for a long time, chloroplast introns seemed to have been an insurmountable hurdle for the
But they are actually nothing of the sort, stresses Ralph Bock, head of the research group. Our trials have shown that the introns are recognised in the cell nucleus and spliced out, even if not always at exactly the same sites as might have been the case in the chloroplasts. Functional proteins are formed despite this. It is thought that the introns even help the splicing enzymes by folding themselves into stable RNA structures, thus directing the enzymes to the right locations. At the same time, the RNA structure seems to help the ribosomes find the correct starting point for protein synthesis. Since the transfer of genes into the cell nucleus is an extremely slow evolutionary process, which has taken nature millions of years, it has not been possible to investigate the underlying mechanism to date. However, researchers have now managed to fast-forward this gene transfer in the laboratory. Because the cells were subjected to high selection pressure, the transference of genes from the chloroplasts into the nucleus became essential for survival, so that it could be made readily visible. It was found that the transfer takes place without the involvement of RNA and that the DNA apparently jumps directly from the cells
References
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articleke
http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/biol/Microbiology/transf
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/~smaloy/MicrobialGenetics/top
References
http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/safety/environmen
http://www.ableweb.org/volumes/vol-19/1-mordacq.p
http://www.gmo-safety.eu/glossary/671.gene-transfe
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=29 http://www.genome.gov/10004764