virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
Hepatitis D virus is a unique human pathogen. With a circular, negative stranded RNA genome of ~1700 nucleotides, it is the smallest known human virus. Formation of the HDV particle depends on co-infection of cells with a helper virus, hepatitis B virus. Once thought to be specific for humans, related viruses have now been identified in birds and snakes – in the absence of hepatitis B virus.
[Read more…] about Hepatitis delta-like virus in birds and snakes
The diversity of cellular RNA structure and function has progressed from the early days of molecular biology, when we thought only about mRNA, tRNA and ribosomal RNAs. Then RNA splicing was discovered along with the many small nuclear RNAs that mediate that process. Next came small interfering RNAs and microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs, master regulators of cell processes. The latest addition to the RNA toolbox are circular RNAs (circRNA), first found in viroids, then cells, and now encoded in the genomes of two herpesviruses.