Changing Role of Wild Birds in the Epidemiology of Avian Influenza A Viruses
Publication date: Available online 21 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Rogier Bodewes, Thijs Kuiken Waterbirds are the main reservoir for low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses (LPAIV), from which occasional spillover to poultry occurs. When circulating among poultry, LPAIV may become highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses (HPAIV). In recent years, the epidemiology of HPAIV viruses has changed drastically. HPAIV H5N1 are currently endemic among poultry in a number of countries. In addition, global spread of HPAIV H5Nx viruses has resulted in major outbreaks among wild birds and poultry ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 22, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Antiviral Immune Response and the Route of Infection in Drosophila melanogaster
Publication date: Available online 21 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Juan A. Mondotte, Maria-Carla Saleh The use of Drosophila as a model organism has made an important contribution to our understanding of the function and regulation of innate immunity in insects. Indeed, insects can discriminate between different types of pathogens and mount specific and effective responses. Strikingly, the same pathogen can trigger a different immune response in the same organism, depending solely on the route of infection by which the pathogen is delivered. In this review, we recapitulate what is known ab...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 22, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
ASFV Biology and Vaccine Approaches
Publication date: Available online 21 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Yolanda Revilla, Daniel Pérez-Núñez, Juergen A. Richt African swine fever (ASF) is an acute and often fatal disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boar, with severe economic consequences for affected countries. ASF is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and the island of Sardinia, Italy. Since 2007, the virus emerged in the republic of Georgia, and since then spread throughout the Caucasus region and Russia. Outbreaks have also been reported in Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Moldova, Czech Republic, ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 22, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
The Role of Immune Responses in HIV Mother-to-Child Transmission
Publication date: Available online 16 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Caitlin Milligan, Jennifer A. Slyker, Julie Overbaugh HIV mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) represents a success story in the HIV/AIDS field given the significant reduction in number of transmission events with the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment and other prevention methods. Nevertheless, MTCT still occurs and better understanding of the basic biology and immunology of transmission will aid in future prevention and treatment efforts. MTCT is a unique setting given that the transmission pair is known and the infant ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 20, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
An Orchestra of Reovirus Receptors: Still Searching for the Conductor
Publication date: Available online 13 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Danica M. Sutherland, Pavithra Aravamudhan, Terence S. Dermody Viruses are constantly engaged in a molecular arms race with the host, where efficient and tactical use of cellular receptors benefits critical steps in infection. Receptor use dictates initiation, establishment, and spread of viral infection to new tissues and hosts. Mammalian orthoreoviruses (reoviruses) are pervasive pathogens that use multiple receptors to overcome protective host barriers to disseminate from sites of initial infection and cause disease in ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 14, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
The Species Problem in Virology
Publication date: Available online 2 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Marc H.V. Van Regenmortel Virus classification deals with conceptual species classes that have viruses as their members. A virus species cannot be described but can only be defined by listing certain species-defining properties of its member. However, it is not possible to define a virus species by using a single species-defining property. The new 2013 official definition of virus species is not appropriate because it applies equally to virus genera. A nucleotide motif is a chemical part of a viral genome and is not a species...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 3, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Protein Localization and Interaction Studies in Plants: Toward Defining Complete Proteomes by Visualization
Publication date: Available online 2 November 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research Author(s): Michael M. Goodin Protein interaction and localization studies in plants are a fundamental component of achieving mechanistic understanding of virus:plant interactions at the systems level. Many such studies are conducted using transient expression assays in leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana, the most widely used experimental plant host in virology, examined by laser-scanning confocal microscopy. This chapter provides a workflow for protein interaction and localization experiments, with particular attention to the many control ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - November 3, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Nine Software Dedicated to Virus Sequence Analysis “Bioinformatics Goes Viral”
We present how viral sequences can be detected de novo out of current short-read NGS data. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and applications of viral quasispecies and how secondary structures, commonly shaped by RNA viruses, can be computationally predicted. The phylogenetic analysis of viruses, as another ubiquitous field in virology, forms an essential element of describing viral epidemics and challenges current algorithms. Recently, the first specialized virus-bioinformatic organizations have been established. We need to bring together virologists and bioinformaticians and provide a platform for the implementation...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Seven Bluetongue Virus: From BTV-1 to BTV-27
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Guillaume Belbis, Stéphan Zientara, Emmanuel Bréard, Corinne Sailleau, Grégory Caignard, Damien Vitour, Houssam Attoui Bluetongue virus (BTV) is the type species of genus Orbivirus within family Reoviridae. Bluetongue virus is transmitted between its ruminant hosts by the bite of Culicoides spp. midges. Severe BT cases are characterized by symptoms including hemorrhagic fever, particularly in sheep, loss of productivity, and death. To date, 27 BTV serotypes have been documented. These include novel isolates of atypical BTV, which hav...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Six New Leaves in the Growing Tree of Pestiviruses
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Sandra Blome, Martin Beer, Kerstin Wernike Pestiviruses are a group of viruses of veterinary importance infecting livestock animals like pigs, cattle, and sheep, and also wildlife animals like wild boar and different deer species. While for decades only four classical species (Classical swine fever virus, Bovine viral diarrhea virus types 1 and 2, Border disease virus), and a few so-called atypical pestiviruses were known (e.g., Giraffe virus, Pronghorn virus, HoBi virus), a series of novel pestiviruses was identified in the last years (Bun...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Five The Expanding Field of Mammalian Astroviruses: Opportunities and Challenges in Clinical Virology
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Céline L. Boujon, Michel C. Koch, Torsten Seuberlich Astroviruses are best known as being one of the leading causes of diarrhea in infants and were first described in this context in 1975. In its first years, astrovirus research was mainly restricted to electron microscopy and serology studies. The ability to culture some of these viruses in vitro allowed a first consequent step forward, especially at the molecular level. Since the emergence of more powerful genetic methods, though, the face of this research field has dramatically changed ...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Four Assessing the Diversity of Rodent-Borne Viruses: Exploring of High-Throughput Sequencing and Classical Amplification/Sequencing Approaches
In conclusion, HTS, in combination with conventional RT-PCR/PCR-based approaches, resulted in a drastically increased knowledge of the diversity of rodent viruses. Future improvements of the used workflows, including bioinformatics analysis, will further enhance our knowledge and preparedness in case of the emergence of novel viruses. Classical virological and additional molecular approaches are needed for genome annotation and functional characterization of novel viruses, discovered by these technologies, and evaluation of their zoonotic potential. (Source: Advances in Virus Research)
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Three Schmallenberg Virus: A Novel Virus of Veterinary Importance
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Kerstin Wernike, Martin Beer In late 2011, unspecific clinical symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, and decreased milk production were observed in dairy cattle in the Dutch/German border region. After exclusion of classical endemic and emerging viruses by targeted diagnostic systems, blood samples from acutely diseased cows were subjected to metagenomics analysis. An insect-transmitted orthobunyavirus of the Simbu serogroup was identified as the causative agent and named Schmallenberg virus (SBV). It was one of the first detections of the intro...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter Two Loeffler 4.0: Diagnostic Metagenomics
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Dirk Höper, Claudia Wylezich, Martin Beer A new world of possibilities for “virus discovery” was opened up with high-throughput sequencing becoming available in the last decade. While scientifically metagenomic analysis was established before the start of the era of high-throughput sequencing, the availability of the first second-generation sequencers was the kick-off for diagnosticians to use sequencing for the detection of novel pathogens. Today, diagnostic metagenomics is becoming the standard procedure for the detection and genetic...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Chapter One The First “Virus Hunters”
Publication date: 2017 Source:Advances in Virus Research, Volume 99 Author(s): Thomas C. Mettenleiter The history of virology is a history of conceptual and technological inventions and breakthroughs. The development of filters made of porcelain or kieselgur by the end of the 19th century which withheld bacteria allowed the identification of infectious agents smaller than bacteria and noncultivable on the media known at that time and used to grow bacteria. Even finer-grain filters resulted in the observation that the ultravisible novel infectious agents are in fact of particulate nature. Infections of plants and animals...
Source: Advances in Virus Research - October 10, 2017 Category: Virology Source Type: research
