Written with Amy Rosenfeld, Ph.D. By infecting organotypic brain slice cultures from embryonic mice, we have shown that Zika virus has always been neurotropic. The same culture system provides information on how Zika virus infection of the developing brain might lead to microcephaly.
Written with Amy Rosenfeld, Ph.D. Zika virus has been infecting humans since at least the 1950s (and probably earlier), but epidemics of infection have only been observed in the past ten years and congenital Zika syndrome in the last two. Two hypotheses emerged to explain this new pattern of disease: evolution of the virus, or …
What would happen to an RNA virus if its genome were placed in a bad neighborhood? The answer is that fitness plummets. RNA virus populations are not composed of a single defined nucleic acid sequence, but are dynamic distributions of many nonidentical but related members. In the past I have referred to these populations as quasispecies but …
We have previously discussed the idea that viruses originated from selfish genetic elements such as plasmids and transposons when these nucleic acids acquired structural proteins (see A plasmid on the road to becoming a virus). I want to explore in more detail the idea that the structural proteins of viruses likely originated from cell proteins (link to …
Jonathan Yewdell, Chief of the Cellular Biology Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has written a book entitled Truth Wins: A Practical Guide to Succeeding in Biomedical Research. Dr. Yewdell is well known for his presentations about the problems with biomedical science, a subject we discussed on TWiV 208: The Biomedical …
Truth Wins: A Practical Guide to Succeeding in Biomedical Research, by Jonathan Yewdell Read More »
Chemical modification of RNA by the addition of methyl groups is known to alter gene expression without changing the nucleotide sequence. The addition of a methyl group to adenosine has been found to regulate gene expression of animal viruses, and most recently of plant viruses. The illustration shows a methyl (CH3-) group added to the …
