Re: Would eukaryotic mRNA be translated if inserted into bacteria?

In fact that is a good question and was for a long time in molecular biology. The fact is, if one should insert a eukaryotic mRNA straight into the cytoplasm of a bacteria, the transfected mRNA would most likely be degraded by RNases. So basically, the 70S ribosome wouldn't even get the chance to associate the corresponding amino acids to the eukaryotic mRNA. There is one way to transfect a bacterium so that it will express the gene of interest.

First some basics, viruses are simple or double stranded RNA or DNA molecules, they are also separate from prokaryotes, or bacteria, in that they need to infect cells to survive and replicate.

Viruses have the ability to either ''transfect'' their content into a host cell. DNA virus genes have sequences downstream (3') and upstream (3') also transfected that are necessary for the transcription of the gene of interest. But if they are RNA viruses, an enzyme, also present in their delivered content, called reverse transcriptase, will convert transfected RNA into DNA at a given time so that the virus' DNA is made in the infected cell.

Now to answer your question. It is possible to transfect a eukaryotic gene into a bacteria but only after some ''basic'' molecular biology manipulations. First option is to isolate the total eukaryote mature mRNA from the cell of interest. Then we do a reverse transcription of all this so that it is possible to isolate and sequence the expressed gene of interest. Once the mRNA strand of interest identified, a ligation reaction is necessary to "stitch" together the cDNA strand + the enzymaticly digested virus DNA (commercialy available). Then the matter of inserting the ligation reaction into a competent phage virus and screening wich virus actually did take the sequence of interest. Afterwards, the simple task of putting the viruses with the sequence of interest with the bacteria of choice, and if the conditions are right, the bacteria should express the eukaryotic gene.

So it possible to make bacteria express an already transcribed eukaryotic mRNA, but only with our modern notions of molecular biology. There are other methods a bit more complicated but basically it all comes up to the fact that a simple insertion of mRNA into a host cell will most likely not work since it will be degraded.

I hope this answered your question.