Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Most studies in virology have been motivated by three main considerations.First, and most obviously, viruses cause serious diseases.By studying viral pathogens, their mode of transmission and replication, and their mechanisms of pathogenesis, many of humanity's greatest scourges have been eliminated or controlled.Smallpox, polio, measles, yellow fever, viral hepatitis, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and other diseases of humans, plants, and animals can now be effectively prevented, cured, or contained.Second, viruses have intimate relationships with their obligate cellular hosts.Because of these relationships, viruses are powerful tools to elucidate the innermost secrets of cells, and many aspects of cellular and molecular biology were first revealed through studies of viral replication.Third, viruses influence entire ecosystems and mediate processes as diverse as oxygenation of oceans and decomposition of organic matter through their capacity to regulate the population of their hosts.Regardless of the precise consideration, viruses hold the attraction of any object of discovery or affection, whether it be the heavens or the polar regions.By studying viruses, fascinating aspects of nature are revealed.Many studies of virus replication have utilized a reductionist approach that seeks to isolate individual features of viruses to allow their analysis in mechanistic detail.And what better object for such reductionism than viruses, which are themselves minimalist entities at the boundary between chemistry and life?Anything simpler than an intact virus-say, a viral protein or nucleic acid-was nudged over that boundary, into the realm of chemistry and under the purview of the biochemist or molecular biologist.Indeed, several features of viruses, particularly their small size and our ability to isolate them in pure form from cells and tissues, contributed to the reductionist mind-set and the development of requisite experimental approaches that drove much of biology for the past fifty years.The success of this reductionist approach cannot be denied.It led to much of our current understanding of many vital cellular processes including cell cycle control, mRNA processing, signal transduction, and intracellular protein trafficking.This approach is often hypothesis driven, involving the study of a single viral component or a small assembly of components, one at a https://doi.org
Source: Annual Review of Virology
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2893032350