Amy returns to TWiV to discuss her work on the identification of cross-reactive antibody responses among diverse enteroviruses, and the implications for our understanding of viral pathogenesis and seroprevalence studies.
HSV-1 virions capture the cellular motor protein kinesin from initially infected epithelial cells and ferry it to subsequently infected neuronal cells to deliver their genome into the nucleus of those cells.
From the Fourth Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Germany, Vincent, Rich, and Nels speak with Assaf, Stephen, and Alexandra about their careers and their work on giant viruses that infect ocean hosts: Emiliana huxleyi, Aureococcus anophagefferans, and a choanoflagellate.  Click arrow to play Download TWiV 575 (73 MB .mp3, 121 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email …
TWiV 575: Endless giant virus forms most beautiful Read More »
The TWiVome discuss the blood virome of 8,420 humans, and thoroughly geek out on a paper about the number of parental viruses in a plaque. You can find TWiV #435 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 435 (73 MB .mp3, 121 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV!
The plaque assay – my favorite assay in the world – is a time-honored procedure to determine the number of viruses in a sample, and to establish clonal virus stocks. The linear relationship between the number of infectious particles and the plaque count (illustrated; image credit) shows that one infectious particle is sufficient to initiate infection. Despite the …
A study of sexual transmission of Zika virus among mice (link to paper) demonstrates beautifully that viral nucleic acid detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is not the same as infectious virus. Male mice were infected with Zika virus and then mated with female mice. Efficient sexual transmission of the virus from males to females was observed. This …
