An evolutionary change in diagnostic virology

The earliest laboratory diagnoses of viral infections were made by microscopy just after the turn of the twentieth century. Animal and egg inoculation were the methods of choice until tissue culture and serology accelerated the field of diagnostic virology during the fifties and sixties. More rapid methods, including electron microscopy, immunoassays, and nucleic acid probes, are now available and influencing laboratory decisions and patient care. This review discusses changes in science and society which have influenced diagnostic virology and how the discipline has responded to these influences.     

The origin of modern plant virology

Plant virology, born with Mayer's work, saw a first (embryonic) phase of development during two decades (1900-1920) with outstanding contributions from Dimitri Ivanovski, Martinus Beijerinck, Erwin Baur and Harry Allard. Between 1920 and 1930 a second phase saw the elaboration of surprising hypotheses concerning the enigmatic nature of viruses and experimental evidence of great stress was obtained. Revolutionary renewal began from the mid-1930s on the basis of a body of knowledge which was organically assembled into the first textbook of plant virology published by Kenneth Smith in 1933. In 1922, the geneticist Hermann Muller put forward the hypothesis that considered viruses as possible genes. The theory was resumed in an apparently independent way by Benjamin Duggar and Joanne Karrer Armstrong in 1923, who considered TMV a biocolloidal self-reproducing protein, like genes appeared to be. This hypothesis, even if neglected by virologists, anticipated by some decades the functional nature of viruses and represented the first conceptual response to virus enigma. Considerable experimental results were obtained by James Johnson, who showed that plants could be infected by different viruses and who introduced a first rational system of plant virus classification. Harold McKinney showed that TMV could mutate. Harold Storey, Kenneth Smith and Harry Severin demonstrated that several viruses could be transmitted by insects and supplied the first interpretation of the relationship between virus and insect. Mayme Dvorak and Helen Purdy obtained the first experimental evidence of the antigenic power of plant viruses. Virus purification, first tentatively accomplished with physical methods, was brilliantly performed by chemical means. Finally, Francis Holmes elaborated the first suitable test to estimate virus infectivity. The evolution of plant virology from an empirical discipline to a biological science took place thanks to the work of one group of American and English scientists who must be regarded as the fathers of modern plant virology.     

Pediatric Virology

Pediatric virology is not an isolàted discipline. Rather, the syndromes associated with viral infection are modified by the unique characteristics of infancy and childhood. Fortunately for the pediatrician, and certainly for children, viral infections in childhood are rarely fatal, and are almost never serious. Future efforts of the pediatrician and virologist should be directed toward increased fetal salvage as with rubella and the prevention of severe, viral lower respiratory tract disease.     

A short history of plant virology. III. The thirties.

The Thirties testified on the outstanding development of plant virology: the new discoveries formalized the concept of virus on a physicochemical background. Plant viruses, which had received their own taxonomical position at the end of the Twenties, were no longer considered as simple "infective pathogens" as their size, shape and chemical nature were determined, particularly for one of them--tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). This paramount contribution was achieved as a consequence of a functional interaction between biology on one side, and chemistry and physics on the other side, from the development of which molecular biology was born. The chemical characterization of TMV developed from the first determination of nitrogen presence in purified virus, performed by Carl Vinson, through the identification of TMV as Wendell Stanley's infective, autoreplicative protein macromolecule, to the final discovery of its nucleoprotein nature by the British group of Frederick Bawden. Thorough analytical techniques--in particular electron microscopy--led to disclose the exact shape and size of TMV particle. These discoveries, that opened a new era of virology, were corroborated by new knowledge that, although less explosive, can be considered of great importance for the development of plant virology. The methodologies to estimate viral activity; the study of the relationships between viruses and insect vectors; the studies on virus spread within plants; the identification of non-sterile type of resistance and of correlation between single plant genes and viral pathogenesis benefited plant virology of a set of knowledge that, together with the discoveries on the physico-chemical properties of TMV, raised plant virology from a secondary branch of plant pathology to a new independent science by itself.     

Teaching of microbiology at medical institutes (on the results of the XVI All-Union Congress of Microbiologists and Epidemiologists)]

Data on teaching microbiology, virology, and immunology to students of the 2nd and 3rd course of medical institute are presented. A number of recommendations of the improvement of bacteriology and virology teaching at the sanitary-hygienic faculties are given; in particular it is suggested to introduce into the teaching plan for students of the 6th course of sanitary-hygienic faculties specialization on medical microbiology and virology. For the general view on virology the author considers it necessary to begin study of the viruses by delivery of individual lectures in the general course of microbiology during the 4th semester; it is recommended to present the main virology course during the 5th semester.     

单纯疱疹病毒基因组的限制性核酸内切酶分析

为了获得单纯疱疹病毒(HSV)基因组的限制性核酸内切酶(RE)分析资料和选择合适的RE去研究HSV感染,用11种常用的RE对HSV两个型别的实验室标准毒株的基因组分别作了分析。比较研究的结果表明,BamHI、HpaI和PstI等RE较适于HSV的研究和分型。本研究所采用的小量提取HSV DNA的方法具有快速、简便和实用的特点,值得在HSV感染的诊断、分型和HSV分子流行病学诸研究中推广使用。     

Harnessed viruses in the age of metagenomics and synthetic biology: an update on infectious clone assembly and biotechnologies of plant viruses

Recent metagenomic studies have provided an unprecedented wealth of data, which are revolutionizing our understanding of virus diversity. A redrawn landscape highlights viruses as active players in the phytobiome, and surveys have uncovered their positive roles in environmental stress tolerance of plants. Viral infectious clones are key tools for functional characterization of known and newly identified viruses. Knowledge of viruses and their components has been instrumental for the development of modern plant molecular biology and biotechnology. In this review, we provide extensive guidelines built on current synthetic biology advances that streamline infectious clone assembly, thus lessening a major technical constraint of plant virology. The focus is on generation of infectious clones in binary T‐DNA vectors, which are delivered efficiently to plants by Agrobacterium. We then summarize recent applications of plant viruses and explore emerging trends in microbiology, bacterial and human virology that, once translated to plant virology, could lead to the development of virus‐based gene therapies for ad hoc engineering of plant traits. The systematic characterization of plant virus roles in the phytobiome and next‐generation virus‐based tools will be indispensable landmarks in the synthetic biology roadmap to better crops.     

《病毒学》课程的教学改革思路与实践探索

分析了《病毒学》课程及病毒学学科的发展特点。在总结病毒学传统教学经验的基础上,结合该学科的快速发展趋势,对该课程在新的历史条件下的教材选择、教学内容的改革与建设、实验配套的硬件与软件建设、实验教学安排等方面进行了讨论和分析,并介绍了武汉大学在病毒学课程建设与教学改革中的一些具体做法和体会。     

PI Recruitment

Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was founded in 1956. With scientific research elitists, Wuhan Institute of Virology is the only comprehensive institute carrying out fundamental researches on virology in CAS. The institute offers a highly interactive research environment and outstanding research facilities,including BSL3 laboratories. According to the national strategic need, Wuhan Institute of Virology has recently extended its emphasis from general virology to human virology and emerging diseases research.     

Genetics and virology: two interdisciplinary branches of biology.

Genetics has a tradition that dates back to the Ancient Greeks. It developed, between insight and contradiction, from the post-Renaissance to the mid-1800s, when Mendel and Darwin gave it the first experimental and conceptual bases. From 1910, genetics became a true experimental discipline of Biology thanks to the work of Morgan's group. On the contrary, virology is a relatively young discipline which had origin only after the success of the "germ theory" of Pasteur and Koch, by the hypothesis of the contagium vivum fluidum of Beijerinck, in 1898. In spite of their historical difference, the modern development of the two disciplines had a close connection. In 1922, the geneticist Muller first compared the bacteriophage to the gene and, in 1923, the (phyto)physiologists Benjamin Duggar and Joanne Karrer Armstrong suggested the analogy between gene and Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Knowledge on the biochemical nature of gene and virus developed in the early 1940s when the biochemists began to suspect that the nucleic acids might be the genetical determinants for both the bionts. Avery and co-workers discovered in 1944 that DNA was the principle of the transmission of hereditary characters in bacteria and, in 1948, a little group of English (phyto)virologists (Markham, Matthews and Smith) discovered that the RNA of a plant virus (Turnip yellow mosaic virus) was directly involved in virus replication. The fundamental significance of the two discoveries was not gathered by geneticists and virologists, even because the respective groups did not gave the necessary emphasis to their results. Thus, the discovery of the role of the nucleic acids in virus replication is historically attributed to Hershey and Chase for DNA phage, and to Fraenkel-Conrat and the German virologists Gierer and Schramm for plant viruses.     

Virus bioinformatics: databases and recent applications

Bioinformatics is now used as an umbrella term for almost all aspects of computational biology. Bioinformatics research will have an impact on all of biology, and virology is not immune from these research methods. Although virology has been slower to embrace bioinformatics this is now changing, particularly in the areas of viral sequences databasing and the systematic identification of viral and host homologous proteins. Here we will review some of these recent advances focusing mainly on the herpesvirus.     

Summary of the 9th annual meeting of the italian society for virology

The 9th annual meeting of the Italian Society for Virology (SIV) comprised seven plenary sessions focused on: General virology and viral genetics; Virus–Host interaction and pathogenesis; Viral oncology; Emerging viruses and zoonotic, foodborne, and environmental pathways of transmission; Viral immunology and vaccines; Medical virology and antiviral therapy; Viral biotechnologies and gene therapy. Moreover, four hot topics were discussed in special lectures: the Pioneer in human virology lecture regarding the control of viral epidemics with particular emphasis on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the Pioneer in plant virology lecture focused on cell responses to plant virus infection, a Keynote lecture on the epidemiology and genetic diversity of Crimea–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus, and the G.B. Rossi lecture on the molecular basis and clinical implications of human cytomegalovirus tropism for endothelial/epithelial cells. The meeting had an attendance of about 160 virologists. A summary of the plenary lectures and oral selected presentations is reported. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 285–287, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and direct sequencing for determination of HBV genotypes in a Turkish population

The aim of this study was to analyze the restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct sequencing results in genotyping of hepatitis B virus from a Turkish population in a clinical virology laboratory. Serum samples of 54 chronic hepatitis B patients attending the Ege University Hospital were studied. Sequences of partial S gene PCR products were analysed and RFLP was performed. Fifty-three isolates could be identified by direct sequencing as genotype D. One sample needed to be cloned and determined as genotype D. Forty-two isolates were genotyped as D with RFLP according to published determinative patterns. Twelve isolates had undefined patterns. Eight of them suggested a mixture of isolates with different patterns and cloning of these samples confirmed the presence of heterogeneous isolates. Four isolates with undefined pattern were determined as genotype D by direct sequencing. All the studied isolates were genotype D. The results of this studied population suggest that RFLP is suitable for HBV genotyping in a routine clinical virology laboratory setting. However sequence analysis and even cloning may be needed to clarify indeterminate results.     

中国植物病毒研究40年

本文综述我国自20世纪70年代以来在植物病毒学领域的研究概况,较全面地介绍各个时间段具有代表性的研究成果,并对国内高水平的植物病毒学研究室及其研究领域进行了较详细的介绍。     

Medical virology in Malaysia

Virology is a branch of biological science dealing with the study of viruses, and medical virology focuses on the study and control of diseases due to viruses that is of medical importance. The development of medical virology in Malaysia has its beginning in the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), following the establishment of the Division of Medical Zoology and Virus Research in the institute on 23 March 1953. The second institution in the country to establish diagnostic and research work in medical virology was Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. This was followed by University Kebangsaan Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia and University of Sarawak Malaysia. The National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) is the latest institution to establish a laboratory in 2003 for virus isolation and services to support country surveillance and outbreak investigation of infectious diseases due to viruses. In the field of medical virology, Malaysia contributed substantially in the areas of virus diagnostic services, development and research ranging from survey and documentation on the existence and prevalence of viruses causing diseases in Malaysia, clinical presentation and epidemiological features of virus diseases, evaluation of new diagnostic tests to pathogenesis of viral diseases. Malaysia contributed to the discoveries of at least 12 new viruses in the world. ASEAN plus Three (China, Japan, Republic of Korea) Emerging Infectious Programme was established to overcome the challenges and impact of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in this region. Malaysia as the co-ordinator of the laboratory component of the programme, contributed to strengthen the regional laboratory capability, capacity, laboratory-based surveillance and networking. The future of medical virology in Malaysia in terms of integration of diagnostic, reference and research to support the country's need will be enhanced and strengthened with the on-going development of the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Malaysia) which also incorporates a futuristic Special Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory.     

Herpesvirus genetics has come of age

The genetic analysis of the large and complex herpesviruses has been a constant challenge to herpesvirologists. Elegant methods have been developed to produce mutants in infected cells that rely on the cellular recombination machinery. Bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), single copy F-factor-based plasmid vectors of intermediate insert capacity, have now enabled the cloning of complete herpesvirus genomes. Infectious virus genomes can be shuttled between Escherichia coli and eukaryotic cells. Herpesvirus BAC DNA engineering in E. coli by homologous recombination requires neither restriction sites nor cloning steps and allows the introduction of a wide variety of DNA modifications. Such E. coli-based technology has provided a safe, fast and effective approach to the systematic mining of the information stored in herpesvirus genomes as a result of their intimate co-evolution with their specific hosts for millions of years. Use of this technique could lead to new developments in clinical virology and basic virology research, and increase the usage of viral genomes as investigative tools and vectors.     

A history of plant virology. Mendelian genetics and resistance of plants to viruses.

Virology was borne at the end of the nineteenth century, some years before the re-discovery of the so-called "Mendel's Laws". The rapid development of genetics was helpful to horticulturists and plant pathologists to produce hybrids of important cropping species resistant to several virus diseases. The concepts of Mendelian genetics were applied to plant virology by Francis Oliver Holmes, an American scientist who must be considered a pioneer in several fields of modern plant virology. During the Thirties, Holmes studied in particular the hypersensitive response of solanaceous plants to TMV and discovered the N dominant gene of tobacco hypersensitive to this virus. After the Second World War, the theoretic and practical support given by geneticists assisted plant virologists in better understanding the mechanism of inheritance of the character "resistance". The major problems posed by breeding for plant resistance were detected and critically discussed in several reviews published between the Fifties and the Sixties. These results, together with the discovery of the genetic functions of RNA virus raised interest on the possible relations between viral and plant genes. This fundamental subject saw the entry into the virological scene of molecular genetics, and in 1970 the Russian virologist Joseph Atabekov introduced host specificity to viruses as a central point of plant virology. From the mid 1980s, this point attracted the interest of several virologists, and many results led to several theoretic models of genetic interactions between plant and virus products. In the last fifteen years, the introduction of transgenic plants has given a remarkable contribution to the question of host specificity, which, however, still awaits a general explanation.     

Priscilla Schaffer (1941-2009): a Stalwart Herpesvirologist

Priscilla Ann Schaffer died from complications of Parkinson''s Disease on 18 November 2009. Priscilla was a colleague and a friend, as well as being a stellar member of the virology community. She was a longtime Journal of Virology reviewer, a member of the editorial board, and a frequent contributor. Her energy and enthusiasm for virology, her students, her colleagues, and life in general were exceptional. She will be missed. Her colleague Donald Coen has prepared a memorial celebrating her life and accomplishments.Lynn W. EnquistEditor in Chief, Journal of Virology     

Viral detection by electron microscopy: past, present and future

Viruses are very small and most of them can be seen only by TEM (transmission electron microscopy). TEM has therefore made a major contribution to virology, including the discovery of many viruses, the diagnosis of various viral infections and fundamental investigations of virus-host cell interactions. However, TEM has gradually been replaced by more sensitive methods, such as the PCR. In research, new imaging techniques for fluorescence light microscopy have supplanted TEM, making it possible to study live cells and dynamic interactions between viruses and the cellular machinery. Nevertheless, TEM remains essential for certain aspects of virology. It is very useful for the initial identification of unknown viral agents in particular outbreaks, and is recommended by regulatory agencies for investigation of the viral safety of biological products and/or the cells used to produce them. In research, only TEM has a resolution sufficiently high for discrimination between aggregated viral proteins and structured viral particles. Recent examples of different viral assembly models illustrate the value of TEM for improving our understanding of virus-cell interactions.     

Hepatitis C: molecular virology and antiviral targets

Chronic hepatitis C is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Although current treatment options are limited, progress in understanding the molecular virology of hepatitis C has led to the identification of novel antiviral targets. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo model systems have been developed that allow systematic evaluation of new therapeutic strategies. This review details current concepts in molecular virology and emerging therapies for hepatitis C.