Rhinovirus is the most frequent cause of the common cold, and the virus itself is quite common: there are over 160 types, classified into 3 species. The cell receptor has just been identified for the rhinovirus C species, which can cause more severe illness than members of the A or B ...

On episode #334 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVles talk about endogenous viruses in plants, sex and Ebolavirus transmission, an outbreak of canine influenza in the US, Dr. Oz, and doubling the NIH budget. You can find TWiV #334 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.

About eight percent of human DNA is viral: it consists of retroviral genomes produced by infections that occurred many years ago. These endogenous retroviruses are passed from parent to child in our DNA. Some of these viral genomes are activated for a brief time during human embryogenesis, suggesting that they may ...

On episode #333 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent returns to Vanderbilt University and meets up with Ben, Megan, Bobak, and Meredith to learn about life in the Medical Scientist Training Program, where students earn both an MD and a Ph.D. You can find TWiV #333 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.

Virus populations do not consist of a single member with a defined nucleic acid sequence, but are dynamic distributions of nonidentical but related members called a quasispecies (illustrated at left). While next-generation sequencing methods have the capability of describing a quasispecies, the errors associated with this technology have limited progress in ...