Questions tagged [virology]
Virology deals with the study of viruses, infectious entities that require the machinery of a host cell to replicate.
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it is possible that a rabies dog barking transmission rabies [closed]
It is possible that a rabies dog barking transmission rabies tiny droplets of saliva on the wound，near to me，while i walking on the street.this there any medical case in the word？ Or we just need to ...
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Is it rare for a virus to be similar to its host?
Halomonas bacteriophage vB_HmeY_H4907 discovered recently in the Mariana trench is apparently highly homologous to its host:
To our best knowledge, it is the deepest isolated siphovirus from the ...
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I need help identifying the source of my contamination in my viral titration experiments
I am relatively new to what I'm currently working with and as the title suggests, I am currently having some issues with my experiment (viral titration).
So, what I have been doing is the following:
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Triangulation Number of Icosahedral Capsids: Formula Variable Definitions
I'm trying to understand the definition of the Triangulation Number for Icosahedral Virus Capsids: In Alan J. Cann's "Principles of Molecular Virology 5th Edition", it is defined as
$T=f^2\...
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If Viruses use Host Proteins, why don't Immune Cells attack Host Cells?
The Wikipedia article for Viral Proteins contains the following line:
Thus, viruses do not code for many of their own viral proteins, and instead use the host cell's machinery to produce the viral ...
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If we were to discover an alien ecosystem that has a D-configuration of proteins, how would it react to our L-sided biology?
I'm concepting a hard-sci-fi story where a scientist discovers microorganisms in our solar system with disastrous results. I was thinking about how any cross-contamination with an alien ecosystem ...
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Basis of the taxonomic classification of viruses [closed]
The Wikipedia entry on Virus Classification contains the following statement:
“Viruses are classified by phenotypic characteristics, such as
morphology, nucleic acid type, mode of replication, host ...
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Was there a flu season in paleolithic times?
In temperate climates, flu viruses rise and recede with winter. This is for a number of reasons, including lack of vitamin D production in darkness (which weakens the immune system), dry air (humidity ...
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Can simultaneous double pathogen infections happen, or are they prevented?
Is there something in immunology that prevents a simultaneous infection with a 2nd pathogen? For example, I've never heard of someone getting both dengue and malaria together. Or, say, Ebola and ...
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How to calculate phage infection rate from decreased PFU counts?
Some experiments measured the effect of particular chemicals on the infectivity of lytic phages in terms of influence on the PFU/mL counts.
For example, the reduction of PFU/mL of exposed phages over ...
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Is there a way to lyse bacteriophage with just heat?
I basically want the virus to fall apart into pieces. I want the capsid proteins to separate from the tail proteins and the DNA to all tumble out. I want all of the virus proteins, structural and DNA, ...
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Can macrophages phagocytose viruses directly?
I've been reading that Macrophages, members of the innate immune system, can actively track bacteria and protozoa to devour and destroy them. In the same way, can macrophages devour free viruses, in ...
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Is there a way to isolate bacteria and viruses without a centrifuge?
Is there a way to isolate bacteria and phages from soil samples if you do not have access to a centrifuge? The purpose for which we need to isolate bacteria is for basic phage hunting.
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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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Why is China experiencing such a surge in acute cases of COVID?
The majority of western nations have lifted most if not all COVID restrictions, however we are not seeing a massive rise in serious cases of COVID-19.
Why is it different in China? Do they have a ...
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How are spacer sequences created in a prokaryotic genome?
The CRISPR/Cas defense mechanism uses spacer sequences between palindromic repeats to search for the sequence to cut by an endonuclease. But how are these spacers created?
Let's take Bacteriophages, ...
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What if all virus suddenly disappear? [closed]
Exactly as the question says:
Let's say that all the viruses suddenly disappear (it doesn't matter the cause, just evaporate!): what would happened with the life on Earth?
I know: if this question ...
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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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Can anyone recommend a paper/protocol on baculovirus in vitro DNA packaging?
I have a couple of good protocols on in vitro lambda phage DNA packaging, where you can get the empty capsid to take in the DNA without the involvement of a host organism. But now I need something ...
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What safe, accessible enveloped virus should we use for beginning experiments?
I need to know which virus meets the following criteria:
It has to be enveloped.
It has to have a DNA packaging scheme similar to Adenovirus (basically, sticks most of itself together then draws in ...
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Has there been evidence that there has been coevolution in E. Coli strains with the T4 bacteriophage?
According to Evolution of T4-related phages, there have been multiple instances of evolution in the T4 coliphages. Per the article, there are many T-even phages that have insertions from other ...
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immune system - how does adaptive work without innate?
The way I understood immune system is that:
phagocytes detect viruses and present it on their surface and become antigen presenting cells.
Then, T-helper cells try to bind to these phagocytes that ...
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How bacteria respond to toxic viral proteins?
The lysis-lysogeny state of bacteriophage lambda is well known. Under certain conditions, the phage will enter the lysogenic state after infection of a bacterium. Then, after a while, the phage ...
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Taxonomy of viruses
There is a distinction drawn in the ICTV code between "valid names" and "accepted names".
Valid names are those that are published and comply with the rules outlined in the code, ...
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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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Beneficial effects of the fungi of a termite mound on the diseases suffered by the termites
My motivation to join this Biology Stack Exchange is the article by David Pride that I've read from the Spanish edition of Scientific American, that's Investigación y Ciencia. The article is [1], and ...
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Setup of terrarium for an early life experiment
I'm building a terrarium in which an early life environment will be simulated. Over multiple years a few experiments with different starting molecules/atoms will be held in it. The selected materials ...
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Is uncoating required for completion of reverse transcription of HIV?
The p24 capsid plays an important role in the replication of HIV, particularly in the reverse transcription and nuclear entry processes. The capsid protects the viral reverse transcription complex (...
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Data on number of viral replication cycles and their duration doesn't seem to agree with observed duration of infection
I'm trying to model SARS-CoV-2 disease progression in individuals (and have very little background in biology).
At first glance, data from the literature on the duration and number of replication ...
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Isolation of viruses and Koch's Postulates in connection with terrain theory and claims that viruses don't exist
If, as a physicist, I were to be told that quarks have never been isolated, and so they are not actually real particles, it would take some effort to respond. I'd have to talk about the Standard ...
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Does the SARS-CoV2 spike protein passively diffuse through the nuclear pore complex?
I found this thread which is worth reviewing as context to my question(s) since there is some overlap in potential discussion, although it's concern is with mRNA ingress rather than spike protein.
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Why don’t all HPV strains cause cancers?
There are roughly a dozen high risk HPV strains responsible for cervical cancer. These strains promote hyperplasia of infected cells by encoding E6 and E7, which potently antagonize tumor suppressor ...
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How can a viral infection (like shingles) recur in a healthy individual?
I don't quite understand how a viral infection, like chicken pox (Herpes Zoster), can recur in a healthy individual. If the body has created an immune response, how can the virus just spontaneously ...
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How likely is rabies virus will enter the body through this kind of imperfect human part when you perform this "experiment"?
First, let's not confuse my question with typical skin peel when your body part slip on a road and get that typical red colored skin due to blood. It's not like blood is flowing, but clearly red area ...
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Can the Monkeypox virus be spread by mosquitoes?
I am wondering if the Monkeypox virus could be spread by mosquitoes since it is part of the Smallpox family.
While doing some online research on this possibility, I came across this abstract taken ...
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How are DNA virus cladograms actually calculated in practice? Is the procedure different for RNA viruses? Are these processes somewhat subjective?
The May 24, 2022 Bloomberg opinion piece Monkeypox Isn’t Looking Like a Covid-Sized Threat; It’s still early, but contact-tracing efforts and analysis of the virus’s genome offer hope that this ...
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Are there any cases where broadening the tissue tropism decreases the virulence of viruses?
Broadening the tissue tropism often increases the virulence. For example, poliovirus normally replicates in the guts and causes minor febrile illnesses. In rare cases (1%) the virus invades neurons ...
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Many viruses use pressure to pump viral DNA into host cells. Does that mean these viruses have a narrow acceptance of the genome size?
DNA viruses like bacteriophages and herpes viruses have rigid capsids. The viral DNA is densely packed inside, and the internal pressure is 1~2 orders of magnitude higher than the atmospheric pressure....
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If a HIV+ person gets COVID, will it result in more mutant virus? [closed]
High schooler here.
What is the probability of the coronavirus evolving to gain traits of HIV/any other virus from a person suffering from both ailments?
As COVID virus enters cells that are already ...
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Why don't viruses reach broad concentration outdoors in a city like allergens?
Why don't airborne viruses reach concentrations that infect most people vulnerable outdoors in a city the way an allergen can cause inflammation to everyone sensitive to it. Both are (often) ...
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How does HIV assemble its capsid correctly?
HIV’s capsid is very unusual. The capsid is made of around 1200 identical CA proteins (p24). These CA proteins first assemble into either pentamers or hexamers, which assemble into a fullerene like ...
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Is Zayed et al.’s revision of Orthornavirae robust?
Zayed et al. (April 7, 2022) in Science “Cryptic and abundant marine viruses at the evolutionary origins of Earth’s RNA virome” report several major hitherto-unknown Ribovirial phyla:
The two most ...
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Resource to obtain listings of tissues that different viruses infect
I am working on a project that involves analysis of viral DNA sequences. I'd like test hypotheses about issue specificity. Ideally I'd be able to get a table of virus/strain names with a column in it ...
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Zayed et al. (2022) "Cryptic and abundant marine viruses at the evolutionary origins of Earth’s RNA virome"; expressed sequences or transcribed?
Phys.org's Ocean water samples yield treasure trove of RNA virus data summarizes Zayed et al. (April 7, 2022) in Science Cryptic and abundant marine viruses at the evolutionary origins of Earth’s RNA ...
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Would viral diversity result in a change in the effectiveness of CRISPR systems in a population of bacteria, within a closed system?
I have here my hypothesis, does this make scientific sense? Assume this situation is occurring in a closed environment with only bacteria and bacteriophages.
The effectiveness of CRISPR/Cas9, being an ...
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When and how did the Embecovirus acquire hemagglutinin esterase?
The Embecovirus is different from the rest of Betacoronavirus by possessing an additional protein, a hemagglutinin esterase (HE).
There are known similarities between the HE's of different viruses (...
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How do viral envelopes contain molecules coded for by viral genes when they are derived from the host cell's plasma membrane?
I have been studying viruses from " Biology: A Global Approach " by Campbell, Urry, et al. Regarding viral envelopes in animal viruses, the textbook writes, " ..the viral envelope is ...
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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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Does Herpes Simplex Virus induce antibodies which last a lifetime?
Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) is a virus which produces both lytic and latent infection. In the latter case it persists in a quiescent form in the neural ganglia for the lifetime of its host.
My ...
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Infection induced immunity vs vaccine induced immunity
I'm of course concerned about COVID here, but my question is about viruses in general and mRNA vaccines. I'm reading reports including one by the government seeming to suggest that vaccine-induced ...
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