I am reading articles and websites on gene knockdown and sometimes they state transfection efficiency or infection efficiency. for example, one website is trying to sell plasmid constructs containing a gene to be expressed in the cell and they talk of both transfection and infection efficiency of the construct being expressed in a cell line. What is the difference between transfecting cells and infecting cells? When should either be used in what situations?
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pito
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Posted 13 March 2011 - 08:52 AM
Its hard to tell...
The problem is that those words are used in so many different cases.
Transfection comes originaly from tranfection + infection (using a virus or bacteriophage)
Now transfection is used for the introduction of DNA or RNA in cells by artificial methods eg chemical (so not a viral method).
Infection just means that a parasite (ex virus of bacterium) infects a host...
I think in the papers you read they write infection if they use a virus to infect the bacterium (altough they should use transduction then) and that they write transfection if its not with a virus.
The problem is that those words are used in so many different cases.
Transfection comes originaly from tranfection + infection (using a virus or bacteriophage)
Now transfection is used for the introduction of DNA or RNA in cells by artificial methods eg chemical (so not a viral method).
Infection just means that a parasite (ex virus of bacterium) infects a host...
I think in the papers you read they write infection if they use a virus to infect the bacterium (altough they should use transduction then) and that they write transfection if its not with a virus.
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