Abstract
This chapter discusses the usage of retrovirus-derived vectors to introduce and express genes in mammalian cells. There has been a surge in the development of experimental systems to introduce and express genes in mammalian cells. The main feature of such transduction systems is a vector, a defined DNA fragment carrying various properties affecting the propagation and/or expression of the transduced gene in the recipient cells. The first and most widely used mammalian transduction system was derived from the genome of SV40, a DNA virus of monkey origin. The chapter discusses a mammalian transduction system derived from the genome of a murine retrovirus, Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV). This experimental system is designed to introduce genes into the chromosome of mammalian cells at the rate of one or a few copies per genome and to permit expression of the transduced genetic information in a stable fashion, enabling the isolation and indefinite propagation of cells carrying the newly acquired gene.