Origin and Evolution of Viruses

Focuses on the mechanisms that viruses use to survive and cause disease in their hosts. Covering human, animal, plant and bacterial viruses, this work provides the basic foundations for the evolutionary dynamics of viruses and examples of diseases explained by the evolutionary flexibility of the viral agents.

Autorentext
Esteban Domingo studied chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Barcelona, Spain and spent postdoctoral stays at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Zürich. His main interests are the quasispecies structure of RNA viruses and the development of new antiviral strategies. He is presently Professor of Research of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) at Centro de Biología Molecular "Servero Ochoa" in Madrid.

Klappentext

New viral diseases are emerging continuously. Viruses adapt to new environments at astounding rates. Genetic variability of viruses jeopardizes vaccine efficacy. For many viruses mutants resistant to antiviral agents or host immune responses arise readily, for example, with HIV and influenza.These variations are all of utmost importance for human and animal health as they have prevented us from controlling these epidemic pathogens. This book focuses on the mechanisms that viruses use to evolve, survive and cause disease in their hosts. Covering human, animal, plant and bacterial viruses, it provides both the basic foundations for the evolutionary dynamics of viruses and specific examples of emerging diseases explained by the evolutionary flexibility of the viral agents that circulate in a continuously changing earth environment.

Zusammenfassung
Review of the previous edition:
"...this book...is a detailed account of current thinking on virus evolution... Because of the diversity of subjects, this book gives an up to date picture of research in various fields of virology, and helps to tease out connections between these fields. The subjects covered are essential reading for virologists but also have direct relevance for molecular biologists, and indeed any researchers with interests in early evolution... This publication is highly recommended for its breadth of coverage and detailed treatments of the various subjects" --TODAY'S LIFE SCIENCE (February 2001)

Inhalt

1. Early Replication: Origin and Evolution
   
   2. Structure and Evolution of Viroids
   3. Mutation, Competition and Selection as Measured with Small RNA Molecules
   4. Viral Quasispecies: Dynamics, Interactions and Pathogenesis
   5. Comparative Studies of RNA Virus Evolution
   6. Nucleic Acid Polymerase Fidelity and Viral Population Fitness
   7. The complex Interactions of Viruses and the RNAi Machinery: A Driving Force in Viral Evolution
   8. The Role of the APOBEC3 Family of Cytidine Deaminases in Innate Immunity, G-to-A Hypermutation
   9. Lethal Mutagenesis
   10. Evolution of dsDNA Tailed Phages
   11. More about Plant Virus Evolution - Past, Present and Future
   12. Mutant clouds and bottleneck events in plant virus evolution
   13. Retrovirus Evolution
   14. Intra-host dynamics and evolution of HIV Infection
   15. The Impact of Rapid Evolution of Hepatitis Viruses
   16. Arbovirus Evolution
   17. Evolution and Variation of the Parvoviruses
   18. Genome Diversity and Evolution of Papillomaviruses
   19. Origin and Evolution of Poxviruses
   20. Molecular Evolution of the Herpesvirales
   21. The widespread evolutional significance of viruses