Question

I'm designing an in vivo delivery vector for therapeutic transgenes. I have two different potential versions of the transgenes. If they were innate, they'd be referred to as alleles. Does the terminology change if they're transgenes?

Answer 1

The terminology for gene variants introduced through gene therapy is different from alleles, but the concept is similar.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the context of gene therapy, the term 'allele' is typically used to refer to different versions of a gene that are naturally present in an organism's DNA. However, when discussing transgenes, which are genes introduced into an organism through gene therapy, the terminology is slightly different.

Instead of using the term 'allele', which implies a natural variation, transgenes are often referred to as different versions or variants of the therapeutic gene. These different versions can be designed to have different functions or characteristics to cater to specific therapeutic needs. For example, different versions of a therapeutic transgene may encode for slightly different proteins or have different regulatory elements to control gene expression.

Overall, although the terminology changes from 'allele' to 'variant' when discussing transgenes, the concept remains similar in that different versions of a gene with distinct properties and functions can be used in gene therapy to achieve specific therapeutic goals.