TWiV 147: Debugging dengue

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aedes aegypti wolbachiaHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Dickson Despommier, and Alan Dove

The complete TWiV gang discusses the use of Wolbachia to control mosquito-borne infections.

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Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Sid the science kid
Dickson – Through the alimentary canal with gun and camera by George S. Chappell
Vincent – Rule of 6ix
Rich – Reality check

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4 thoughts on “TWiV 147: Debugging dengue”

  1. nasher

    Dr Racaniello

    I would be very interested to hear your thoughts regarding Paprotka et al.  John coffins paper on the origin of xmrv.

    this study does not have a record in the text of an rt pcr assay that was used only for the late xenografts.  I thought he had used one of the two assays in the paper for that section of the study, but now i find vinay pathak at croi saying it was an rt-pcr assay, which is not in the paper.  you can see from the gels that they are the same results as the rt pcr he did say was used, in his presentation at croi.

    papers are always withdrawn by journals for this type of conduct.  can i ask when you think science will be removing paprotka et al?

    thanks

  2. Ed

    Gentlemen, I think you’ll find that Dylan Thomas was Welsh, not Irish. Though you are of course correct on his penchant for writing and drinking!

  3. Dorian McILROY

    Thanks for another fascinating TWIV. I might have missed it, but I don’t think you pointed out that Wolbachia are phylogenetically very close to Rickettsia. So although Wolbachia doesn’t infect mammals, there is another closely related group of bacteria that infect and cause disease in humans. Interestingly, Wolbachia are all transmitted vertically (from mother to offspring), while as far as I know, Rickettsia are all transmitted horizontally (from one infected host to an unrelated non-infected individual). This may explain why Wolbachia have a tendency to be symbionts, that give something back to their hosts, rather than out-and-out parasites. Since the transmission of Wolbachia is dependent on the reproductive success of the animal they are living in, it would be kind of self-defeating if they killed their host, while for Rickettsia, as long as they can get transmitted to a new host, they don’t “care” how much damage they cause during infection.

    Also, I was interested to hear about plans to start a similar show in Spanish. If anyone wants to start a show in French, I would definitely be up for it.

    Dorian McILROY

  4. Rohan

    CONFESSIONS OF A DENGUE VIRUS
    Yo ho hoo im a poor little virus. Humans call me ‘Dengue Virus’,
    derived from the African word ‘ka – dinga pepo’, the meaning of this is much
    weirder than the name itself! ‘Flaviviridae’- that’s the name they’ve given for
    my family. I ve heard they named me after the disease which i cause in humans.
    How cruel of them to accuse me of such a thing! All i want to do is just
    survive…  and humans accuse me of causing
    something called ‘break bone disease’!  AIN’T
    THERE A GOD FOR VIRUSES?? Yo ho hoo im a poor little virus.

     

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