The gut tracts of many animals are inhabited by a microbial community composed of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. The interplay among these inhabitants can have an impact on health and disease. Mosquitoes are no exception – replication of dengue virus in the gut tract is modulated by a fungus and a bacterium.
The family of viruses known as the Filoviridae (filo, from the Latin for thread) is well known for the ebolaviruses, which cause the hemorrhagic disease that regularly erupts in Africa. As Earth€™s virome is slowly revealed, other filoviruses are discovered.
Measles virus does not just cause a rash – it can kill, up to 100,000 people each year. And there are many related viruses circulating in other animals that are not far from being able to infect human cells.
The diversity of cellular RNA structure and function has progressed from the early days of molecular biology, when we thought only about mRNA, tRNA and ribosomal RNAs. Then RNA splicing was discovered along with the many small nuclear RNAs that mediate that process. Next came small interfering RNAs and microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs, master …
by Gertrud U. Rey Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) include a variety of fatal neurodegenerative diseases caused by infectious proteins called prions. Although prions are not viruses, their ability to self-propagate without a nucleic acid intermediate has always fascinated virologists, causing them to adopt prions into their repertoire of pathogenic agents. Common TSEs comprise scrapie in …
We did a lot of science communication in 2018. By we, I mean all the individuals who gave their time selflessly to write for this blog or record podcasts with me. Here is a summary of what we did last year. virology blog
