Vector

A carrier that transmits a disease from one party to another.

A vector is an agent used to carry genes into another organism. Specific examples of natural vectors include plasmids or viruses. In human gene therapy, vector viruses must be able to withstand the challenge of the patient's immune system. Once the vector manages to invade the immune system, it must be able to penetrate the cell membrane and, finally, must be able to combine its genome into that of the host cell. Vectors are also crucial to plant and animal genetic engineering.

1. a carrier, especially the animal (usually an arthropod) which transfers an infective agent from one host to another, e.g the tsetse fly, which carries trypanosomes from animals to humans, dogs, bats and other animals that transmit the rabies virus. In molecular biology, a DNA molecule which serves to transfer DNA into a host cell.
2. a quantity possessing magnitude, direction and sense (positivity or negativity).

• biological v. — an arthropod vector in whose body the infecting organism develops or multiplies before becoming infective to the recipient individual.
• cloning v. — a DNA molecule used to transfer an inserted DNA segment into a host cell. Includes other viruses, phages and bacterial plasmids. Called also cloning vehicle.
• mechanical v. — an arthropod vector that transmits the infective organisms from one host to another but is not essential to the life cycle of the parasite.
• shuttle v's — vectors which contain both prokaryotic and eukaryotic replication signals, thus allowing replication of the vector in both kinds of cells.
• targeting v. — a vector carrying a DNA sequence that is able to take part in a specified chromosomal crossover in the host.

In biology, the term vector may be used in different contexts:

• Vector (epidemiology), an organism, often an invertebrate arthropod, that transmits a pathogen from reservoir to host
• Vector (molecular biology), vehicle used to transfer genetic material to a target cell
  • Plasmid vector
  • Binary vector, a cloning vector used to generate transgenic plants
  • Cloning vector
  • Expression vector, a plasmid specifically used for protein expression in the target
  • Shuttle vector, a vector (usually a plasmid) constructed so that it can propagate in two different host species
  • Viral vector, a virus modified to deliver foreign genetic material into a cell
• Vector (dispersal), an organism that carries and disperses reproductive structures (e.g., seeds, spores, or pollen) of a different species.
  • Pollinator, the biotic agent (vector) that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)