Questions tagged [retrovirus]
Retroviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that reverse-transcribe their genome into DNA that is then integrated into the host genome.
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Endogenous retroviral insertions as evidence for evolutionary relationships among primates
A synopsis of a 2005 paper in PlosBiology by Yohn et al. states that:
Searching the genomes of a subset of apes and monkeys revealed that
the retrovirus had integrated into the germline of ...
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Do endogenous retroviruses (ERV) have a high degree of heterogeneity among people?
Endogenous retroviruses (ERV) make up 5~8% of human genome. These ERV are ancient retroviruses which infected germ cells and therefore became parts of our genomes. However, unless the ERV can increase ...
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does retrovirus need to manipulate cell cycle by neutralizing Rb and/or p53?
Early studies of transforming retroviruses led to discovery of oncogenes, while studies of DNA viruses (like AV40) led to discovery of p53 and Rb and tumor suppressor genes. Frank McCormick says in ...
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Does RNA of virus have poly adenylate tail before or after entry into the host cell?
I understand that RNA needs to have 5' cap and poly(A) tail to be recognised by eukaryotic ribosomes for translation.
Some viruses are RNA based(like influenza and HIV).
Does the RNA of these ...
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Why aren't iPSC's created in vivo?
As I understand it, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC's) can be made using the following (grossly oversimplified) steps:
Take some skin cells (fibroblasts) from the host
Introduce the ...
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Where does (retro)virus replication take place?
When a virus replicates, it has to create several copies of its genome to the "daughter viruses"? Where in the cell does this replication of the viral genome take place? And how?
In my book, ...
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With an mRNA-vaccine, would it hypothetically be possible to get that sequence transcribed into their genome for people who suffer from a retrovirus?
I recently read a bit about the mRNA-vaccines for COVID-2019. I fully understand that mRNA cannot enter the genome of a healthy person as they lack the required reverse transcriptase to transcribe RNA ...
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Is there an equivalent to vertebrate endogenous retroviruses in invertebrates or microbes?
I know jawed vertebrates have a lot of junk DNA floating around coming from ancient retroviruses. Some of the DNA is important to mammalian evolution. The DNA also provides a useful means to study the ...
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How do we know genes that are considered endogenous retroviruses are actually endogenous retroviruses and not just ordinary genes?
What makes these genes different as to be classed as an endogenous retrovirus? I've read the entirity of Wikipedia on retroviruses and didn't find the answer. I think it could be that these genes are ...
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What book teaches you about endogenous retroviruses [closed]
I'm interest in ERVs as evidence for evolution and want to learn more about them.
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The effect of low pH on HIV virus
I've read a couple of articles that state that HIV is an enveloped Retrovirus that is so sensitive to the acidity of the environment and it cannot survive or will be inactivated at pH below 7. What ...
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Is viral single-stranded RNA in the absence of reverse transcriptase infectious?
In a medical microbiology textbook I'm reading (Murray et al, 1994), the authors state the following:
The retrovirus genome has a 5' cap and is polyadenylated at the 3' end. Although the genome ...
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How do plants prevent infection from retroviruses? [duplicate]
Why are plants not affected by animal viruses such as retroviruses? What prevents them from being infected?
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Purpose of EF1 alpha promoter
Context: I have seen promoters used to have gene therapy viruses target specific cells, so I am referring to that apparent function of theirs.
As an example I have seen GFAP promoters used for ...
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Destroying RNA of viruses using Ribonuclease
I wonder if it is possible to design some Ribonuclease to destroy only specific RNAs (like those of viruses). Then, if virus tries to infect, his RNA will be cut.
Or, instead of creating Ribonuclease, ...
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Do person with strong immune system have less chance of surviving SARS-COV-2 attack?
In most of the cases dealing with SARS-COV-2 disease, the major mortality cause is due to cytokine storm in response to Corona-virus that also attack healthy organs causing multiple organ failure.
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Why does increased humidity decrease coronavirus "survival"?
All news I can see scientist telling that the SARS-CoV-2 virus survive more in cold and dry weather. I can understand cold as hot weather will desiccate virus, but why dry weather.
Would not dry ...
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Is there an 'anti-virus'?
A virus spreads around and usually attaches itself to the host, multiplies & causes diseases. But is there something like an anti-virus? A single celled entity that does the opposite: spreads ...
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Are viruses ever manufactured directly from viral DNA embedded in the genome?
Some viruses can cause their genetic material to be pemanently stored in the human genome -- even getting passed on to offspring.
Endogenous Retroviruses, for example are thought to make up between 5~...
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Why AZT is selective towards HIV and doesn't impair human DNA replication?
I've found this article, which is a very old one (from the time when nucleoside analogs where researched as a possible way to prevent replication of virus genetic material, before the HIV epidemics).
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Why there is no vaccine against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)?
I was informed by my teacher that this retrovirus changes its RNA, so there is not a drug which can recognize the RNA and somehow inactivates it. Are there any other reasons explaining why there isn't ...
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Can a plasmid cause cancer? [closed]
Can a plasmid cause cancer?
According to wikipedia, plasmids are normally present in bacteria
They (plasmids) are normally present in bacteria , and sometimes in eukaryotic organisms such as yeast [...
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Secondary structure and function in mRNA and single-stranded virus RNA
Although some mRNAs and the RNA of single-stranded RNA viruses do have some secondary structure, this is much less than in rRNA, tRNA etc.
Why is this so? What prevents their folding to the extent ...
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How to estimate MOI for a complex cell type
I am currently confused about the estimation of multiplicity of infection (MOI), here is an example in a scientific article
in figure 3b, they tested the virus, and get estimated MOI based on this:
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How does heredity work with Endogenous retrovirus?
Q1: If someone in a species gets infected with an endogenous retrovirus, does that mean that absolutely all of their children will have that endogenous retrovirus? Or is it based on chance?
Q2: is ...
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A missing endogenous retrovirus in humans, but present in gorillas and chimpanzees?
I have read an article about an endogenous retrovirus called PtERV1. It is present in gorillas and chimps, but is missing in humans (original study here).
According to the article, this retrovirus is ...
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How many Endogenous Retroviruses do we share with other primates?
Is there a list of Endogenous Retroviruses that we share with other primates? I would like to map all (or most) of them into a hierarchy and see how it fits in our evolutionary branch.
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Why is HIV so large compared to other viruses?
The HIV-1 virus is about 120-150 nm in size and has a genome only about 10,000 base pairs long.
Other viruses are far more efficient, for example lambda phage has something like a tenth the volume ...
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Using viruses to treat altered or misconfigured DNA
Consider how a Retrovirus can modify existing cell DNA to 'execute instructions' on its behalf.
I wondered: Why can we not utilize lab-generated viruses to infect sick patients with a 'healthy' ...
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How to selectively filter BLAST results for an endogenous retroviral LTR to retrieve members of the same ERV family?
I'm running a local BLAST search on a HERV-K(HML2) LTR sequence in the human genome. I get thousands of hits.
I want to retrieve the hits that correspond to other HERV-K(HML2) LTR sequences only.
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Why do retroviruses go through a DNA stage to replicate their RNA genome?
Why do retroviruses (e.g.HIV) convert their RNA genome to DNA (using reverse transcriptase) and then transcribe it back into viral RNA (and translate that into viral proteins). Surely to replicate ...
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How can they know that they found "all the PERVs"? (porcine endogenous retroviruses)
The New York Times article Gene Editing Spurs Hope for Transplanting Pig Organs Into Human links to the recent Science publication Inactivation of porcine endogenous retrovirus in pigs using CRISPR-...
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Can a virus be transmitted from a sweating person out to another person?
In the sport of Jiu-Jitsu, close contact with many partners is common. Many times these partners are sweating profusely (Yuk), which in turn drips on the other person sometimes into the eyes, nose, ...
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Why does HIV belong to a group of retroviruses called lentiviruses?
HIV is an enveloped retrovirus. Each virus particle contains two copies of an RNA genome. The virus also has a number of enzymes: reverse transcriptase, integrase and viral protease. But, once I also ...
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How does HIV mutate into other strains while keeping their virulent phenotype?
How does a virus like HIV mutate into so many strains, and yet all of them are harmful to our immune system? What gives this virus the ability to mutate so efficiently?
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Since RNA viruses and retroviruses all have high mutation rates, why do only a few viruses have the virtue of variability?
We have been taught that it's difficult to make vaccines to influenza, HIV and HCV because they lack the proofreading mechanism, hence have high mutation rates. But most RNA viruses and retroviruses ...
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Human Endogenous Retroviruses
I am reading this paper, which shows that a Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) K provirus is present at the orthologous position of gorilla and chimpanzee genomes but absent in the human genome.
If ...
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Transmission of HIV from Mother-to-Child Through Breastfeeding
If a mother is HIV+ and was on medications which would help her deliver a HIV negative baby, can the baby contract the HIV through her breast milk?
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Recommendations for an intro level virology textbook? [closed]
I'm a college sophomore, and I was just accepted into a research lab that works with retroviruses. Since I haven't taken any classes on the topic yet, does anyone have recommendations for good, intro-...
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How to isolate host cell RNA (tRNA,mRNA,rRNA) from viral RNA?
A retrovirus with RNA genome infected a host cell. You would like to isolate the host cell’s RNA (rRNA, tRNA, and mRNA) from the virus RNA. What properties can you rely on to determine the three types ...
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Retrovirus Production
I have been having difficulties with low transduction efficiencies of my retrovirus production. I expand my plasmid of interest (on MiG-GFP plasmid) in DH5α E Coli for ~24 hours, purify with Qiagen ...
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Are some virus loads introduced to human cell but never triggered?
Is there a term or any evidence of phage DNA integrating into chromosomes/ DNA but never being triggered?
For example, could a virus that affected Neanderthals still infect human cells today but is ...
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Are retroviruses cytotoxic?
There are typically hundreds of retroviruses found in healthy human beings.
Are retroviruses then cytotoxic? (In other words, are they able to kill or damage other cells).
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Is it impossible for a retrovirus to be lysogenic?
Is it impossible for retroviruses to be lysogenic? In the lysogenic cycle, the viral genetic material is incorporated into the host cell's DNA. Because retroviruses have RNA, it would be impossible ...
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Mutation rate in viruses
Mutation rate is a phenotypic trait that evolves. The process of evolution of such kind of traits are often referred to as evolvability. I am wondering about the evolution of the mutation rates in ...
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Why use DNA polymerase in making cDNA?
RT is capable of synthesizing a complementary dna strand ( as in HIV life cycle.) Then why is
DNA pol used when cDNA (synthesizing the second strand of it ) has to be synthesized from mRNA ( For eg.to ...
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How is RNA of retrovirus converted into cDNA?
The retrovirus (oncovirus) contains RNA. It also has a molecule called reverse transcriptase. This molecule transcribes RNA into cDNA. This cDNA is the DNA copy of viral RNA genome
RNA has Uracil ...
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Can retroviral delivery systems "overwrite" genes?
As the question states, what are the limits of retroviral genetic delivery systems?
Are they limited to adding additional gene sequences to a cell, or can they actually overwrite specified segments ...
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