Describe the process of altering the genetic variation of a cell using a genetically modified virus for human gene therapy. In the future, how may this effect the gene pool?
Basically, it is really hard to stick new genetic material into human (as well as other eukaryotic) cells without killing them. Which defeats the purpose - new genetic material in a dead cell is useless. It is a lot easier to get new genetic material into a bacterial cell or into a virus (viruses are really easy, you can't kill them because they are not even technically alive). And because bacterial cells and viruses infect human cells - that is, they get their genetic material into human cells without immediately killing the human cells - they are a far more effective mechanism for getting target genes and sequences into human cells without killing them. There are far more details than that (people do doctoral dissertations on this) - for further reference read up on "gene knock in" and "gene knock out" strategies...
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