Strategic nanoparticle-mediated gene transfer in plants and animals - A novel approach

Genetic engineering is a powerful technique to create genetic modifications for desirable trait and is the purposeful transfer and integration of a foreign gene to the genome of an organism. Gene holds information that gives the organism a particular trait and can be transferred from one organism to another. Safe and efficient DNA delivery is the most important requisite in biological research. There are many methods used for gene transfer but all have certain drawbacks, as nanoparticles are small in size, can penetrate the cell and deliver drugs or biomolecules such as protein into the living systems and can be used as transgenic vehicle for nucleic acid. The present review focuses on nanoparticles, which can act as transgenic vehicle for nucleic acids (DNA, RNA and oligonucleotides) in cell and their comparison with different methods used for genetic material transfer. © 2012 Bentham Science Publishers.