Poliovirus escapes antibodies
Antibodies (purple) bound to poliovirus. Image credit: Jason Roberts Antigenic variation is a hallmark of influenza virus that allows the virus to evade host defenses. Consequently influenza vaccines need to…
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Enterovirus D68 infections in North America
Enterovirus D68 by Jason Roberts An outbreak of respiratory disease caused by enterovirus D68 began in August of this year with clusters of cases in Missouri and Illinois. Since then…
Pushing viruses over the error threshold
…close to their error threshold. The first clues that viruses exist on the edge came from studies in which cells infected with the RNA viruses poliovirus and vesicular stomatitis virus…
Influenza surveillance in the US
…the unusual upsurge in influenza activity during weeks 17 and 18, which coincided with the emergence of the new H1N1 virus. The number of virus-positive specimens dropped during week 19,…
Pithovirus: Bigger than Pandoravirus with a smaller genome
A new virus called Pithovirus sibericum has been isolated from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost. It is the oldest DNA virus of eukaryotes ever isolated, showing that viruses can retain…
Packaging of the segmented influenza RNA genome
The RNA genome of influenza viruses is segmented . The virions of influenza A and B viruses contain 8 different RNAs, while those of influenza C viruses contain 7. How…