by Gertrud U. Rey This post was written in honor of Virus Appreciation Day, which occurs annually on October 3. Public awareness of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) began in the early 1980s when separate clusters of infected individuals were identified in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. These individuals all shared a group of …
Eradication of poliomyelitis appears to be on track: types 2 and 3 polioviruses have been declared eradicated, and in the past 12 months there have been just 338 cases of type 1 polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But there have also been 491 cases of polio caused by the type 2 Sabin vaccine. The development …
A genetically stable attenuated poliovirus vaccine Read More »
Raul Rabadan joins TWiV to explain the use of computational biology to demonstrate how recombination and mutation led to emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Click arrow to playDownload TWiV 619 (43 MB .mp3, 72 min)Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, with a report that the coronavirus proofreading enzyme stimulates RNA recombination, and debunking the conclusion that a change in the viral spike glycoprotein is associated with increased human to human transmission. Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 55 (45 MB .mp3, 74 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email …
TWiEVO 55: Coronavirus evolution from soup to nuts Read More »
Anne Simon joins the TWiV team to talk about plant viruses, including plum pox virus that devastates nut and stone fruit trees, and a geminivirus protein that regulates viral DNA synthesis. <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span><span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>&lt;span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; …
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 …
