Plasmid vectors are circular strands of
DNA, found in
virions
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's ...
, that are used in
genetic engineering to integrate new
genes into a host cell genome.
The small T intron is an
intron, that is used in some plasmid vectors, in order to induce
gene expression in mammalian cells.
Function
The function of this intron in the vectors is unknown, but it is theorized that it might be involved in
splicing or
translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
efficiency.
Vectors such as pME18s contain it.
References
Gene expression
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