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ShareTraditionally in medicine, a vector is an organism that does not cause disease itself but which spreads infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another.
See also:
Species of mosquito, for example, serve as vectors for the deadly disease Malaria.
This sense of "biological vector" is the primary one in epidemiology and in common speech. In gene therapy, a virus itself may serve as a vector, if it has been re-engineered and is used to deliver a gene to its target cell.
A "vector" in this sense is a vehicle for delivering genetic material such as DNA to a cell.
For more information about the topic Vector (biology), read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
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Genetically modified organism — A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using techniques in genetics generally known as ... > read more
Gene therapy — Gene therapy is the insertion of genes into an individual's cells and tissues to treat a disease, and hereditary diseases in which a defective mutant ... > read more
Phytopathology — Phytopathology or plant pathology is the science of diagnosing and managing plant diseases. It covers all infectious agents that attack plants and ... > read more
Chromosomal crossover — Homologous recombination is the process by which two chromosomes, paired up during prophase 1 of meiosis, exchange some distal portion of their DNA. ... > read more
Introduction to genetics — Genetics is the study of how living things receive common traits from previous generations. These traits are described by the genetic information ... > read more
Molecular biology — Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics ... > read more
Genetic recombination — Genetic recombination is the transmission-genetic process by which the combinations of alleles observed at different loci in two parental individuals ... > read moreEditor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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