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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How can a disease be transmissible animal-to-human but not human-to-human? [duplicate]
I have heard some debate about whether or not the Wuhan virus can be transmitted human-to-human, but this doesn't make sense to me. Why wouldn't it be able to? Are there diseases that can only be ...
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flavivirus virus genome, methylated guanine
I'm looking at the sequence of a flavivirus virus genome (mRNA). Kindly see the link MH900227.1. How can I identify the Guanine nucleotide that is methylated in the capping process?
Thanks,
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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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Choosing viruses for influenza vaccine
When scientists choose viruses for the influenza vaccine based on biological and clinical data, what indicates that a certain strain will circulate and likely be dominant in a certain season?
Does a ...
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Virus immunity from animal to humans
There are number of virus which have animal as reservior and jump to human to cause disease. Why dont we use antibodies of animal to cure humans?
Like rabies in bats.
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Catching a cold outside in winter? [duplicate]
We have all heard the typical “Put a jacket on youre going to catch a cold.” Usually stated by an older person typically a grandmother. Excuse the stereotype. Is there any evidence that colder weather ...
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Methods for phage separation
How can a mixture of unspecified phages be separated (into singular phage strains)? I.e, what are the main methods?
My research shows it can be done using CsCl centrifugation and affinity ...
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How can I perform virus neutralization assay for influenza?
How can I perform a Virus Microneutralization assay for influenza virus using serum from mice vaccinated with this virus?
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Viruses and Transformation
Would the lysogenic cycle for the reproduction of viruses be considered a form of naturally occurring transformation since DNA from the virus is being incorporated into the DNA of the host cell?
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Tc and Th1 interaction and viral immune response
Tc is T cell which can give T killer cells and T helper cells.
T helper cells (Th1) see the pathogen presented by antigen presenting cells (dendritic cells and macrophages).
They then secrete antigens ...
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Effect of nerve pills and relationship to Shingles [closed]
Do nerve pills actually suppress the nervous system and how would that effect the Shingles virus which is known to activate under large amounts of stress?
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How does a prophage leave the host cell's genome?
I understand that, unlike a prophage, a provirus never leaves the genome, but I don't understand how the prophage "leaves".
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What is important in the Luria-Latarjet effect?
In the seminal paper
Luria, S.E. and Latarjet, R. (1964) “Ultraviolet irradiation of
bacteriophage during intracellular growth”. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States ...
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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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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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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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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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Virus culture in artificial/synthetic medium
I am looking for a publication/paper in a well a circulated magazine/journal/government study on growing virus culture in synthetic or artificial medium. I have found this link on SARS Cov 2 being ...
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What is an attenuated virus? What is done to it?
UPDATE: So it looks like I've asked a complex and technical question. I'm going to take @tyersome's advice and study Khan Academy on immunology, and from there, formulate a better question if I still ...
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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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Virus lineage, strain, and relation to spike protein variants
On the CDC website we have virus lineage which appears to be constant for all cases presented, or am I reading that wrong? Then the different names and of those with different names, different spike ...
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Evidences supporting that coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) came from bats
I was trying to find evidence that the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) came from bats. So far I know that coronavirus shared 96.2% overall genome sequence identity with a bat coronavirus RaTG13 from ...
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Is there a reliable reproduction rate for adenoviruses?
I was trying to find a R0 for adenoviruses but the best I could find was a study done in a bootcamp in China that infected 375 people.
This states that the R0 was found to be 5.1:
The basic ...
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How do viroids and virusoids cause infection to a specific host ? How could they indentify the host without protein?
We know, the capsule provides specific pathogenecity for the virus right ? Then , how do viroids and virusoids cause infection to a specific host ? How could they indentify the host without protein ?...
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Why does touch the face make more likely to be infected?
Why is it risky to touch the face although there is no direct contact with into the nose, eyes and mouth?
Is there any possibility that pathogens infect us from our facial skin?
Suppose we have ...
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What is the rate of bacterial cell death due to viruses on land?
"The rate of viral infection in the oceans stands at 1 × 10^23 infections per second, and these infections remove 20–40% of all bacterial cells each day." - https://www.nature.com/articles/...
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Are there any examples of viruses that have jumped from reptile to human?
I know that there are plenty of examples of zoonosis occurring from reptiles to humans that involve bacterial pathogens, (e.g. Salmonella) but are there any instances of viruses being transferred from ...
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Biosafety Level 1 (BSL-1) surrogate viruses that show greatest similarity to SARS-CoV-2
I would like to know if there are any viruses that show high similarity to SARS-CoV-2 (particularly in terms of structure) that are very safe to use (i.e., classified as BSL-1).
For example, an avian ...
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The Proofreading Function of Coronavirus Polymerases
I have heard that the Coronavirus family have a proofreading and editing function in their polymerase enzymes which can recognize and excise mutations. This is obviously disastrous for the population ...
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Eradication of HIV
If the last person with AIDS dies, does that mean the disease/virus has been eradicated forever?
Since the disease can ever only be transmitted, shouldn't it be possible to completely remove it from ...
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For how long viruses survive in non-air moisture environments?
On the Internet there are plenty of information that viruses don't live long after they were exposed to air, after they starting to dry out.
But it's hard to find an information on how long viruses ...
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Coronavirus and temperatures
An article on bioRxiv, Evaluation of heating and chemical protocols for inactivating SARS-CoV-2, recommends certain treatments to inactivate SARS-Cov-2 for lab work.
The abstract notes: "Although ...
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What is the Icosahedral Matrices?
This website introduces the "Icosahedral Matrices".
What are the locations of the other half?
It only shows around 30 numbers of the 60 facets. So how to know the other 30 numbers on the back?
The ...
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Does the cell release the empty capsids?
The virus via the spike of the capsid connects to a receptor in a cell, then the DNA enters the cell wall.
My question is what happens to the capsid - does it stay connected to the receptor or is ...
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How are human rotaviruses generally transmitted?
I know rotaviruses are double stranded RNA viruses and i am wondering if the human transmission is similar to the modes of veterinary transmission.
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How large a part of the corona-virus is coding?
If you find an example of a sequenced string of coronavirus it is about 30.000 long. Looking for example here https://nextstrain.org/ncov/europe you'll see that by far the largest part of this is ...
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Is anything known about the speed with which viruses spread geographically in R. affinis (or at least bats in general)?
RaTG13, which is the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2 at full genome level, was sampled (just) in a R. affinis (bat) specimen in Yunnan Province... which is about 1,500 km away from Hubei, the ...
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What keeps a virus from spreading from one species to the other, when it can infect both?
I have read that there have been cases where animals (some tigers, also a dog) have been infected by Covid-19 through a human host. At the same time, I read that currently it is deemed unlikely that ...
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Can virus and bacteria move on the surface? [duplicate]
Do viruses/bacteria have some motive mechanism? I mean if the virus/bacteria reach some surface by touching, can it move on that surface?
Life example: suppose the cooler is not so clean and has ...
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How effective is spraying disinfectant on streets?
I always wondered how effective spaying disinfectant onto outdoor ground is.
Source: Wikimedia
I understand that viruses and bacteria will sink down to the ground. I further understand that ...
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Could total 2020 flu deaths be low due to Covid19 countermeasures?
A working assumption is that Covid19 countermeasures will also reduce seasonal flu transmission and mortality.
Could this effect be so large that the 2020 total global deaths from both causes will be ...
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Can plasmodial slime molds be infected by virus?
According to the definition, plasmodial slime mold consist of a "single cell" with thousands of nuclei. How would such a unique type of cell response to viral infection (if any)? Google search yield ...
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Virus Mortality Selection
This question is related to the recent Wuhan outbreak. Currently, mortality rate for the virus is somewhere around 2-3%. This is much lower than say, SARS (9.5%) and MERS (34.5%).
As a thought ...
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Provisional vaccine for fast spreeding new viruses?
Developing a standard vaccine for coronavirus will take at least a few months - what might be too late:
However, its sequence is already known, and is nearly identical - suggesting a recent single ...
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Is there a known mutation of an insertion type that prevents being infected by a virus?
Recently there was big news about the mutation CCR5 delta 32, that prevents HIV from infecting white blood cells, that was a deletion type of a mutation.
Do we know of an insertion type of mutation ...
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Which cells are prefered by the HIV virus to establish an infection?
We always read that HIV infects CD4 cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. However, is it a common event for HIV to infect non-immune cells within a host? If not, why?
And also if not, why are ...
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How did Smith et al 2004 deal with missing HI [Hemagglutination Inhibition assay] values and HI values <10?
In the scientific paper "Mapping the Antigenic and Genetic Evolution of Influenza Virus's" Supporting Material, Smith et al write about determining antigenic distance Dij. However, I don't understand ...
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What is the difference between a virus and virion
What is the difference between a virus and virion. Correct me if i am wrong but i think that one can simply say that " virus outside a cell is called a virion" and that this stage is used to go from ...
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Can proteins from different viruses be gathered in one virus?
There is a biology project I must do with some of my classmates and we're facing a problem.
We would like to choose proteins from different viruses that seem interesting to us (for example one protein ...
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Are viruses technically organisms, or not? [duplicate]
Are viruses technically organisms or not?
A quick Google search query for the term; are viruses organisms?, reveals various conflicting and somewhat inconclusive ...
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