Publisher's Synopsis
Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents, including (but not limited to) their taxonomy, disease-producing properties, cultivation and genetics. It is often considered a part of microbiology or pathology. In the early years this discipline was dependent upon advances in the chemical and physical sciences, but viruses soon became tools for probing basic biochemical processes of cells. Viruses have traditionally been viewed in a rather negative context as agents responsible for disease that must be controlled or eliminated. However, viruses also have certain beneficial properties that can be exploited for useful purposes. Viruses also cause serious diseases in plants and livestock. The 2001 epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom devastated its beef industry. Plum pox virus, which has decimated stone fruit trees in Europe since the early 1900s, has now spread to the United States and Canada. Viruses have been implicated in a disease that is ravaging our honeybees, threatening natural pollination cycles and thus much of agriculture. Beyond their medical and agricultural importance, viruses are great teachers, and their lessons are not restricted to viral diseases. Viral replication is strictly dependent on cell structure, metabolism, and biochemical machinery. As a consequence, viral gene products interact with crucial regulatory nodes that control cell function, a situation that facilitates the identification and characterization of these nodes and the networks they control. Indeed, the roster of important discoveries uncovered by studies of viral replication and transformation is long: the existence of mRNA and mRNA processing, including splicing, capping, and polyadenylation; transcriptional control elements and transcription factors; gene silencing mechanisms; cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor proteins; and signal transduction pathways and tyrosine kinases, to name just a few. Trends and Advances in Virology and Molecular Biology is a compendium of original research articles as well as review articles in all areas of virology and molecular biology. Viruses and viral diseases have been at the centers of science, agriculture, and medicine for millennia, and some of our greatest challenges and triumphs have involved virology. Smallpox is a prime example: humankind's greatest killer, which literally changed the course of history during the European conquest of the New World, is also the only disease ever eradicated from the globe. This remarkable achievement began with Edward Jenner's scientific demonstration in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox lesions provided protection against the far-more-virulent variola major virus. A concerted worldwide vaccination effort against smallpox led by the World Health Organization resulted in the eradication of the disease by 1979. The smallpox vaccination breakthrough was only the first in a series of important investigations and discoveries inspired by the study of viruses. Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents, including (but not limited to) their taxonomy, disease-producing properties, cultivation and genetics. It is often considered a part of microbiology or pathology. In the early years this discipline was dependent upon advances in the chemical and physical sciences, but viruses soon became tools for probing basic biochemical processes of cells. Viruses have traditionally been viewed in a rather negative context as agents responsible for disease that must be controlled or eliminated. However, viruses also have certain beneficial properties that can be exploited for useful purposes. Viruses also cause serious diseases in plants and livestock. The 2001 epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom devastated its beef industry. Plum pox virus, which has decimated stone fruit trees in Europe since the early 1900s, has now spread to the United States and Canada. Viruses have been implicated in a disease that is ravaging our honeybees, threatening natural pollination cycles and thus much of agriculture. Beyond their medical and agricultural importance, viruses are great teachers, and their lessons are not restricted to viral diseases. Viral replication is strictly dependent on cell structure, metabolism, and biochemical machinery. As a consequence, viral gene products interact with crucial regulatory nodes that control cell function, a situation that facilitates the identification and characterization of these nodes and the networks they control. Indeed, the roster of important discoveries uncovered by studies of viral replication and transformation is long: the existence of mRNA and mRNA processing, including splicing, capping, and polyadenylation; transcriptional control elements and transcription factors; gene silencing mechanisms; cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor proteins; and signal transduction pathways and tyrosine kinases, to name just a few. Trends and Advances in Virology and Molecular Biology is a compendium of original research articles as well as review articles in all areas of virology and molecular biology. Viruses and viral diseases have been at the centers of science, agriculture, and medicine for millennia, and some of our greatest challenges and triumphs have involved virology. Smallpox is a prime example: humankind's greatest killer, which literally changed the course of history during the European conquest of the New World, is also the only disease ever eradicated from the globe. This remarkable achievement began with Edward Jenner's scientific demonstration in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox lesions provided protection against the far-more-virulent variola major virus. A concerted worldwide vaccination effort against smallpox led by the World Health Organization resulted in the eradication of the disease by 1979. The smallpox vaccination breakthrough was only the first in a series of important investigations and discoveries inspired by the study of viruses. Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents, including (but not limited to) their taxonomy, disease-producing properties, cultivation and genetics. It is often considered a part of microbiology or pathology. In the early years this discipline was dependent upon advances in the chemical and physical sciences, but viruses soon became tools for probing basic biochemical processes of cells. Viruses have traditionally been viewed in a rather negative context as agents responsible for disease that must be controlled or eliminated. However, viruses also have certain beneficial properties that can be exploited for useful purposes. Viruses also cause serious diseases in plants and livestock. The 2001 epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom devastated its beef industry. Plum pox virus, which has decimated stone fruit trees in Europe since the early 1900s, has now spread to the United States and Canada. Viruses have been implicated in a disease that is ravaging our honeybees, threatening natural pollination cycles and thus much of agriculture. Beyond their medical and agricultural importance, viruses are great teachers, and their lessons are not restricted to viral diseases. Viral replication is strictly dependent on cell structure, metabolism, and biochemical machinery. As a consequence, viral gene products interact with crucial regulatory nodes that control cell function, a situation that facilitates the identification and characterization of these nodes and the networks they control. Indeed, the roster of important discoveries uncovered by studies of viral replication and transformation is long: the existence of mRNA and mRNA processing, including splicing, capping, and polyadenylation; transcriptional control elements and transcription factors; gene silencing mechanisms; cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor proteins; and signal transduction pathways and tyrosine kinases, to name just a few. Trends and Advances in Virology and Molecular Biology is a compendium of original research articles as well as review articles in all areas of virology and molecular biology. Viruses and viral diseases have been at the centers of science, agriculture, and medicine for millennia, and some of our greatest challenges and triumphs have involved virology. Smallpox is a prime example: humankind's greatest killer, which literally changed the course of history during the European conquest of the New World, is also the only disease ever eradicated from the globe. This remarkable achievement began with Edward Jenner's scientific demonstration in 1796 that inoculation with cowpox lesions provided protection against the far-more-virulent variola major virus. A concerted worldwide vaccination effort against smallpox led by the World Health Organization resulted in the eradication of the disease by 1979. The smallpox vaccination breakthrough was only the first in a series of important investigations and discoveries inspired by the study of viruses.