WHAT ARE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED VECTORS?
It has been well established that flow of genes between organisms of different species occurs in nature. This is called horizontal transfer. Normally, special protection mechanisms prevent foreign genes, after entering a cell, to mix with its DNA. However, special genetic elements, so called vectors, are used in genetic engineering to overcome these so called species barrier mechanisms. Mae-Wan Ho et al (1). have pointed out that this vector DNA may leak out into the soil and from there it may be transferred to bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. They warn that it may promote the emergence of new and dangerous human pathogens. Basically vectors resulted from genetically engineered organisms.
