As a college biology major during the 1970s I was taught that cells in which the genetic material is separated from the cytoplasm by a nuclear membrane - such as those of animals, fungi, plants, and protists - are called eukaryotes. In contrast, the DNA of bacteria is not bounded ...

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit On episode #107 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about poliovirus, social media, dengue, influenza, evolution, gel filtration, and much more. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV107.mp3"] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to ...

Antibodies are an important component of the host defense against viral infection. These molecules, produced 7-14 days after infection, neutralize viral infectivity, thereby limiting the spread of infection. Antibodies are thought to neutralize viral infectivity in several ways: by forming noninfectious aggregates that cannot enter cells, or by blocking virion ...

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit On episode #106 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a second installment of their discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV106.mp3"] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click ...

How large is the zoonotic pool - all the animal viruses that could one day infect humans? Assuming that there are 50,000 vertebrates on earth, each with 20 viruses, the number is one million - probably a vast underestimate. Determining just how many viruses exist in a variety of animal ...