June 2011

Poliomyelitis after a twelve year incubation period

Analysis of poliovirus recovered from the stool of a patient with fatal poliomyelitis revealed that she had been infected with the virus 12 years earlier, probably when one of her children received the oral poliovirus vaccine. This case has the longest known incubation period for vaccine-derived poliomyelitis, and highlights our still rudimentary understanding of how …

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TWiM 10: A symbiotic cloaking device

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Dickson Despommier, Margaret McFall-Ngai, and Elio Schaecter On episode #10 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Margaret, Elio, Michael and Dickson discuss the symbiosis between the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the luminous, gram-negative bacterium Vibrio fischeri. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twimshow/TWiM010.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right click to download TWiM #10 (47 MB, …

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TWiV 139: Honey, I shrunk the virus

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Dickson Despommier Vincent, Alan, and Dickson discuss the reduction in genome size of Mimivirus upon passage in amoeba, and analysis of the microbiome of honeybees. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV139.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #139 (96 MB .mp3, 80 minutes). Subscribe to TWiV (free) in …

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Murine gammaretroviruses in prostate cancer cell lines

The retrovirus XMRV arose during passage of a human prostate tumor in nude mice. The genomes of these mice contain two different proviral DNAs related to XMRV, pre-XMRV-1 and pre-XMRV-2, that recombined to produce XMRV that has been isolated from humans. Two other prostate cancer cell lines also contain mouse gammaretroviruses that are not XMRV. These viruses …

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TWiV 138: RISCy business with Raul Andino

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Raul Andino Vincent meets up with Raul Andino in San Francisco to discuss the RNAi-based antiviral defense system of Drosophila, the fruit fly, and how it is antagonized by viruses. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV138.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #138 (53 MB .mp3, 73 minutes). Subscribe to TWiV …

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Viruses go green

Visualization of M13 virus (orange strand to the right) using the surface proteins (purple strands) to grab the carbon nanotubes and put them in order. Image credit: Matt Klug, Biomolecular Materials Group, MIT. This article was written for extra credit by a student in my recently concluded virology course. by Ian Blubaugh A team at MIT …

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