Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Viral evolution is an important aspect of the epidemiology of viral diseases such as influenza (influenza virus), AIDS , and hepatitis (e.g. HCV). The rapidity of viral mutation also causes problems in the development of successful vaccines and antiviral drugs , as resistant mutations often appear within weeks or months after the beginning of a ...
A founder virus can introduce a different phenotype for the ensuing evolution. Evolution of viruses in nature and as disease agents can be viewed as succession of mutant spectrum alterations, subjected to expansions and reductions of population size in a continuous interplay of positive and negative selection and random drift.
Some viruses such as polio or hepatitis C operate very close to the critical mutation rate (i.e. the largest q that L will allow). Drugs have been created to increase the mutation rate of the viruses in order to push them over the critical boundary so that they lose self-identity.
Gamma phage, an example of virus particles (visualised by electron microscopy) Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses.It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their interaction with host organism physiology and immunity, the diseases they ...
Ewald is known for his "theory of virulence”, suggesting that "the deadlier the germ, the less likely it is to spread", [1] and his theory that many common diseases of unknown origin are likely the result of chronic low-level infections from viruses, bacteria or protozoa.
Surprisingly, most emergent viruses are zoonotic, with natural animal reservoirs a more frequent source of new viruses than is the sudden evolution of a new entity. The most frequent factor in emergence is human behavior that increases the probability of transfer of viruses from their endogenous animal hosts to man.
Viral phylodynamics is the study of how epidemiological, immunological, and evolutionary processes act and potentially interact to shape viral phylogenies. [1] Since the term was coined in 2004, research on viral phylodynamics has focused on transmission dynamics in an effort to shed light on how these dynamics impact viral genetic variation.
The viral eukaryogenesis hypothesis posits that eukaryotes are composed of three ancestral elements: a viral component that became the modern nucleus; a prokaryotic cell (an archaeon according to the eocyte hypothesis) which donated the cytoplasm and cell membrane of modern cells; and another prokaryotic cell (here bacterium) that, by endocytosis, became the modern mitochondrion or chloroplast.