For decades, no one knew how a virus that preys on bacteria transfers its DNA into the host cells because it appeared to lack the structures other viruses use for that process. Now researchers have discovered how the virus does it – using a structure that might hold applications for nanotechnology.
A research team led by the University of Arizona and Purdue University has discovered something very unique about a virus that has been studied for decades: It has the ability to grow a temporary tube-shaped structure, enabling it to inject its DNA into the bacteria on which it preys. (more…)
A mutation as minute as swapping just one amino acid can completely change the target that a virus will bind to on a victim cell — potentially shifting what kind of cell and eventually what kind of organism a virus could infect.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a new study published online in the journal PLoS Pathogens, an international team of scientists showed that by swapping a single amino acid they could change the sugar to which the human BK polyomavirus will binds on the surface of cells. The BK polyomavirus lost the ability to bind its usual target sugar and instead “preferred” the same sugar as its cousin SV40 polyomavirus, which is active in monkeys. (more…)
Studying phages, viruses that infect bacteria, can help researchers to better understand how portions of the world’s oceans function without oxygen.
Though small, viruses could hold the secrets of how vast portions of the world’s oceans function without oxygen.
University of Arizona undergraduate researcher Sarah Schwenck and postdoctoral associate Jennifer Brum are conducting a research project in the Tucson Marine Phage Lab, which is headed by assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Matthew Sullivan. (more…)
A new study shows that common mutant forms of the deadly JC polyomavirus are not responsible for the pathogen’s main attack, which causes a brain-damaging disease in immunocompromised patients called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. But that finding raises the ominous question of what the mutants might be up to instead.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The JC polyomavirus is clearly opportunistic. It infects half the population but lethally destroys brain tissue only in immunocompromised patients — and it may be outright sneaky, too. Even as a new research paper allays fears that common mutant forms of the virus are the ones directly responsible for the disease’s main attack, that same finding raises new questions about what the mutants are doing instead. (more…)
A model of great ape history during the past 15 million years has been fashioned through the study of genetic variation in a large panel of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The catalog of great ape genetic diversity, the most comprehensive ever, elucidates the evolution and population histories of great apes from Africa and Indonesia. The resource will likely also aid in current and future conservation efforts which strive to preserve natural genetic diversity in populations.
More than 75 scientists and wildlife conservationists from around the world assisted the genetic analysis of 79 wild and captive-born great apes. They represent all six great ape species: chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla, and western lowland gorilla, and seven subspecies. Nine human genomes were included in the sampling. (more…)
Clean Syringes Often Unavailable in St. Petersburg, YSPH Research Finds
Russia’s HIV epidemic is among the fastest growing in the world and injection drug users who often share needles and other supplies are hardest hit. This occurs even though pharmacies are a legal source for clean syringes and can sell them without restriction.
A recent study led by the Yale School of Public Health and St. Petersburg State University mapped the city’s 965 pharmacies and compared their locations and density to HIV prevalence at the district level. (more…)
About the video: watch an animation showing the changes in the structure of a T7 virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium.
AUSTIN, Texas — The detailed changes in the structure of a virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium have been observed for the first time, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School this week in Science Express. (more…)
Like the impact of an elephant herd grazing on grassland, multinational banks shape the financial environment to an extent that far outweighs their small number. And like a contagious person on a transnational flight, when these giant, interconnected banks succumb to financial ills, they are uniquely positioned to infect wide swaths of the financial system.
Researchers from Princeton University, the Bank of England and the University of Oxford applied methods inspired by ecosystem stability and contagion models to banking meltdowns and found that large national and international banks wield an influence and potentially destructive power that far exceeds their actual size. (more…)
