Lynda Coughlan joins the weekly virtual bus companions for a discussion of a host defense peptide from frogs that destroys influenza virus, and mouse models for acute and chronic hepacivirus infection. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 452 (68 MB .mp3, 113 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Frogs don't get flu (as far as I know) but their skin contains a peptide that inhibits the replication of influenza virus (link to paper). Frog skin contains host defense peptides (HDPs), part of the innate immune defenses of many species. They were first found in amphibians by Michael Zasloff, ...

Could ancient host proteins contribute to the replication of a modern virus? The answer is, not very well (link to paper). Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, which means that they have to get inside of a host cell to produce more viruses. The genomes of all viruses, even the biggest ...

Ben tenOever joins the TWiVoli to discuss the evolution of RNA interference and his lab's finding that RNAse III nucleases, needed for the maturation of cellular RNAs, are an ancient antiviral RNA recognition platform in all domains of life.   Click arrow to play Download TWiV 450 (58 MB .mp3, 96 min) ...

I just love it when long standing mysteries in virology are suddenly solved, typically by the use of new technologies. In this story, the long standing mystery was why poxvirus mRNAs have a stretch of poly(A) in their 5'-noncoding regions. The answer is that it allows the ribosome to preferentially ...