Let us make an in-depth study of the gene therapy strategies designed to interfere with the HIV-1 life-cycle. Basically Inhibition has been Envisaged at Three Major Levels: (i) Blocking HIV-1 infection: HIV-1 normalÂly infects T lymphocytes by binding of the viral gp120 envelope protein to the CD4 receptor on the cell membrane. Transfer of a gene encoding a soluble form [...]
In this article we will discuss about the concept and units of genes. Concept of Gene: Although the role of hereditary units (factors) in transfer of genetic characters over several generations in organisms was advocated by Gregor John Mendel, yet the mystery of the 'hereditary units' was un-ravelled during early 1900s. In 1909, W. Johanson coined the term 'gene' that [...]
In prokaryotes several mechanisms viz., transformation, conjugation and transduction have been described that mediate the formation of new recombinants. Transformation refers to transfer of relatively small segment of naked DNA from a donor cell (male) to the recipient (female) cell. Conjugation is the process of gene transfer between cells of opposite mating types that are in physical contact with each [...]