Viruses, plant, transfections with

This review will be limited to a discussion of bacteriophage transfection. Reference is made to a previous review by Spizizen, Reilly and Evans (1966). Other reviews cover transfections with plant viruses (Sarkar, 1970) and animal viruses (Dubes, 1971). 

The DNA or cDNA library is then introduced into a preparation of bacterial host cells. Usually, the first host selected is a laboratory strain of E. coli which has been grown and pretreated with inorganic salts to make uptake of DNA easier. The ability to take up foreign DNA is called competence, cells which have been specially prepared for the purpose are called competent cells. Other methods to transfer DNA into cells include electroporation (application of an external electric field to permeabUize the cell wall), transfection (where a recombinant bacterial virus is used to transfer the DNA to the target cell) or ballistic methods (by using DNA-coated particle projectiles). The last method has been used to introduce foreign DNA into plant cells and mammalian cells. 

Since its first appearance, the technique has successfully been used in many different applications (Potter, 1988, 1993 Neumann et al., 1989 Chang et al., 1992 Shikegawa and Dower, 1988 Chassy, 1988) transient and stable transfection of bacteria, plant, and mammalian cells with exogenous DNA (electrotransfection) insertion of enzymes, antibodies, biochemical reagents, viruses, and particles into cells deposition of macromolecules in cell membranes and electrofusion of whole cells. 

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