Novel coronavirus discovered in British bats

A coronavirus related to the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans has been found in UK horseshoe bats—according to new collaborative research from the University of East Anglia, ZSL (Zoological Society of London), and Public ...

Mimivirus isolated, genome amputated

In the absence of competition with other microorganisms, Mimivirus, the largest known DNA virus, loses 17% of its genome. This has recently been demonstrated by a French-American collaboration including researchers from CNRS, ...

How viruses mutate and create new variants

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pop up, and some lead to increasing infections. The main new variants—named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma and first identified in Britain, South Africa, ...

How HIV smuggles its genetic material into the cell nucleus

Each year, about 1 million individuals worldwide become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. To replicate and spread the infection, the virus must smuggle its genetic material into the cell nucleus and integrate ...

Viral switches share a shape

A hinge in the RNA genome of the virus that causes hepatitis C works like a switch that can be flipped to prevent it from replicating in infected cells. Scientists have discovered that this shape is shared by several other ...

Why multipartite viruses infect plants rather than animals

Neither living nor non-living, viruses are generally strange. Among viruses, multipartite viruses are among the most peculiar—their genome is not packed into many particles rather than one. Multipartite viruses primarily ...

page 12 from 18