Expression of a cloned eukaryotic gene in a bacterial cell involves many challenges. The use of mRNA and reverse transcriptase is part of a strategy to solve the problem of
A) post-transcriptional processing.
B) post-translational processing.
C) nucleic acid hybridisation.
D) restriction fragment ligation.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Cloning a eukaryotic gene in a bacterial cell involves many challenges, one of which is post-transcriptional processing. Eukaryotic mRNA undergoes various post-transcriptional modifications like splicing, capping, and tailing, whereas prokaryotic mRNA does not undergo these modifications. Therefore, when a cloned eukaryotic gene is expressed in a bacterial cell, these post-transcriptional modifications are not carried out, which can adversely affect the expression of the gene. The use of mRNA and reverse transcriptase is a strategy to overcome this problem, where mRNA is isolated from the eukaryotic cell and reverse transcribed to cDNA using reverse transcriptase. This cDNA can then be cloned into a suitable vector and expressed in bacterial cells.

Expression of a Cloned Eukaryotic Gene in a Bacterial Cell