VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A virus that has hit fish farms hard in eastern Canada, Norway and Chile may be present in wild salmon that spawn in British Columbia, a biologist says.
Bruce Cohen, a justice on the provincial supreme court, has scheduled a two-day special hearing on evidence that the infectious salmon anemia virus could have hit the region, Postmedia News reported. Cohen is leading an inquiry into the sharp drop in numbers of Fraser River salmon.
Alexandra Morton, a biologist who submitted samples of coho and sockeye salmon for testing, blames open-water salmon farms. She said ISA could have arrived in British Columbia with imported salmon eggs.
"It's a complete wild card. We just don't know and that's what has everyone so afraid," she said.
The number of salmon returning to the Fraser to spawn in 2009 dropped to about 1 million, when 10 million had been expected, but bounced back in 2010. The fish-farming industry says 2009 was an anomaly caused by unusual conditions in Queen Charlotte Sound in 2007 when the salmon went to sea.
Wild salmon managers argue the 2009 catastrophe followed years of lower numbers and 2010 was the anomaly.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/11/05/Virus-hitting-salmon-in-British-Columbia/UPI-91431320525956/#ixzz1cvulEf47
Showing posts with label virus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virus. Show all posts
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
British man claims to have bred indestructible bees
A British man claims to have bred a strain of bee capable of protecting itself from a deadly parasite that is wiping out the environmentally vital insect.
Published: 7:30AM BST 25 Aug 2010
Ron Hoskins, a 79-year-old beekeeper, lost tens of thousands of bees after the parasitic varroa mite entered Britain in 1992.
The mite poses a threat to mankind because the billions of bees it kills world-wide are crucial to pollinating crops and plants.
Mr Hoskins, who has carried out research on his colonies for 18 years, has isolated and is breeding a strain of bees which groom each other to remove the mites.
He is now taking sperm from these bees and artificially inseminating queens from other hives to allow the new breed to spread through Britain.
The British Beekeepers' Association, which represents 18,000 beekeepers, yesterday described the work as ''exciting''.
Mr Hoskins, a former heating engineer from Swindon, Wilts., described the situation as ''serious' and warned that ''if the bees die, we die''.
He said: ''What I want to do is redevelop the British bee so that it can protect itself against these varroa mites.
''If all the bees in the world die out then we die out - the situation is really that serious.
''Humans are reliant on completely reliant on bees for pollinating crops and plants which produce oxygen.
''We are hoping that drones from my 'grooming' bees will mate with wandering female virgin queens and spread the footprint across Britain.
''This is not a short term solution and it will take a lot of work but it could be our only hope of saving the bee.''
The varroa mite entered Britain in 1992 and spread across the country - killing millions of bees.
A survey released in May 2010 by the British Beekeepers' Association revealed that beekepers lost 17 per cent of their colonies in the last year.
The mite lays eggs on bee larvae, which suck their blood and stunt the growth of their wings so they can't fly.
They also attach to the necks of adult bees and sap their strength.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7963075/British-man-claims-to-have-bred-indestructible-bees.html
Published: 7:30AM BST 25 Aug 2010
Ron Hoskins, a 79-year-old beekeeper, lost tens of thousands of bees after the parasitic varroa mite entered Britain in 1992.
The mite poses a threat to mankind because the billions of bees it kills world-wide are crucial to pollinating crops and plants.
Mr Hoskins, who has carried out research on his colonies for 18 years, has isolated and is breeding a strain of bees which groom each other to remove the mites.
He is now taking sperm from these bees and artificially inseminating queens from other hives to allow the new breed to spread through Britain.
The British Beekeepers' Association, which represents 18,000 beekeepers, yesterday described the work as ''exciting''.
Mr Hoskins, a former heating engineer from Swindon, Wilts., described the situation as ''serious' and warned that ''if the bees die, we die''.
He said: ''What I want to do is redevelop the British bee so that it can protect itself against these varroa mites.
''If all the bees in the world die out then we die out - the situation is really that serious.
''Humans are reliant on completely reliant on bees for pollinating crops and plants which produce oxygen.
''We are hoping that drones from my 'grooming' bees will mate with wandering female virgin queens and spread the footprint across Britain.
''This is not a short term solution and it will take a lot of work but it could be our only hope of saving the bee.''
The varroa mite entered Britain in 1992 and spread across the country - killing millions of bees.
A survey released in May 2010 by the British Beekeepers' Association revealed that beekepers lost 17 per cent of their colonies in the last year.
The mite lays eggs on bee larvae, which suck their blood and stunt the growth of their wings so they can't fly.
They also attach to the necks of adult bees and sap their strength.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7963075/British-man-claims-to-have-bred-indestructible-bees.html
Friday, July 2, 2010
Wallabies and Bats Harbor "Fossil" Genes from the Most Deadly Family of Human Viruses
Wallabies and Bats Harbor "Fossil" Genes from the Most Deadly Family of Human Viruses
Research reveals potential reservoir species, new mechanism for how mammals acquire genes
Release Date: June 28, 2010
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans.
Published this week in the online journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, the paper ("Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes") demonstrates for the first time that mammals have harbored filoviruses for at least tens of millions of years, in contrast to the existing estimate of a few thousand.
It suggests that these species, which maintain a filovirus infection without negative health consequences, could have selectively maintained these so-called "fossil" genes as a genetic defense.
The work has important implications for the development of potential human vaccines, as well as for the modeling of disease outbreaks and the discovery of emerging diseases, including new filoviruses.
"This paper identifies the first captured 'fossil' copies of filovirus-like genes in mammalian genomes," says Derek J. Taylor, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and co-author. "Our results confirm for the first time that several groups of mammals, including groups such as marsupials that never colonized Africa, have had an association with filoviruses."
The UB co-authors say that if the rarely captured genes represent antiviral defenses or genomic scars from persistent infections, then the work opens up new possibilities for identifying reservoir species for filoviruses, which harbor the virus but remain asymptomatic.
"The reservoir for filovirus has remained a huge mystery," says Jeremy A. Bruenn, PhD, UB professor of biological sciences and co-author. "We need to identify it because once a filovirus hits humans, it can be deadly."
When the UB researchers studied samples from the fur of a wallaby at the Buffalo Zoo and a brown bat caught on the UB campus, they found that the genomes of both animals as well as some other small mammals contain "fossil" copies of the gene for these deadly viruses, and thus could be candidate reservoir species for them.
"Who knew that the bats in the attic as well as modern marsupials harbored fossil gene copies of the group of viruses that is most lethal to humans," asks Taylor.
The research also demonstrates a new mechanism by which different species of mammals can acquire genes, through non-retroviral integrated RNA viruses, which the UB scientists had previously identified in eukaryotes but was unknown in mammals.
The UB scientists note that it is well-known that RNA retroviruses, like HIV-AIDS, can be integrated into mammal genomes.
"But because filoviruses infect only the cytoplasm of cells and not the nucleus and because they have no means of making DNA copies that might be integrated into the genome -- as retroviruses do -- it was never thought gene transfer could occur between non-retroviral RNA viruses and hosts," says Bruenn. "This paper shows that it does and it may prove to be a far more general phenomenon than is currently known."
The research also reveals that existing estimates that filoviruses originated in mammals a few thousand years ago were way off the mark.
"Our findings demonstrate that filoviruses are, at a minimum, between 10 million and 24 million years old, and probably much older," says Taylor. "Instead of having evolved during the rise of agriculture, they more likely evolved during the rise of mammals."
In addition to Bruenn and Taylor, Robert W. Leach, scientific programmer at the Center for Computational Research in UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, is a co-author on the paper.
The authors are actively involved with the Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems and Bioinformatics strategic strength identified as part of the UB2020 strategic planning process.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/11494
Research reveals potential reservoir species, new mechanism for how mammals acquire genes
Release Date: June 28, 2010
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans.
Published this week in the online journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, the paper ("Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes") demonstrates for the first time that mammals have harbored filoviruses for at least tens of millions of years, in contrast to the existing estimate of a few thousand.
It suggests that these species, which maintain a filovirus infection without negative health consequences, could have selectively maintained these so-called "fossil" genes as a genetic defense.
The work has important implications for the development of potential human vaccines, as well as for the modeling of disease outbreaks and the discovery of emerging diseases, including new filoviruses.
"This paper identifies the first captured 'fossil' copies of filovirus-like genes in mammalian genomes," says Derek J. Taylor, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and co-author. "Our results confirm for the first time that several groups of mammals, including groups such as marsupials that never colonized Africa, have had an association with filoviruses."
The UB co-authors say that if the rarely captured genes represent antiviral defenses or genomic scars from persistent infections, then the work opens up new possibilities for identifying reservoir species for filoviruses, which harbor the virus but remain asymptomatic.
"The reservoir for filovirus has remained a huge mystery," says Jeremy A. Bruenn, PhD, UB professor of biological sciences and co-author. "We need to identify it because once a filovirus hits humans, it can be deadly."
When the UB researchers studied samples from the fur of a wallaby at the Buffalo Zoo and a brown bat caught on the UB campus, they found that the genomes of both animals as well as some other small mammals contain "fossil" copies of the gene for these deadly viruses, and thus could be candidate reservoir species for them.
"Who knew that the bats in the attic as well as modern marsupials harbored fossil gene copies of the group of viruses that is most lethal to humans," asks Taylor.
The research also demonstrates a new mechanism by which different species of mammals can acquire genes, through non-retroviral integrated RNA viruses, which the UB scientists had previously identified in eukaryotes but was unknown in mammals.
The UB scientists note that it is well-known that RNA retroviruses, like HIV-AIDS, can be integrated into mammal genomes.
"But because filoviruses infect only the cytoplasm of cells and not the nucleus and because they have no means of making DNA copies that might be integrated into the genome -- as retroviruses do -- it was never thought gene transfer could occur between non-retroviral RNA viruses and hosts," says Bruenn. "This paper shows that it does and it may prove to be a far more general phenomenon than is currently known."
The research also reveals that existing estimates that filoviruses originated in mammals a few thousand years ago were way off the mark.
"Our findings demonstrate that filoviruses are, at a minimum, between 10 million and 24 million years old, and probably much older," says Taylor. "Instead of having evolved during the rise of agriculture, they more likely evolved during the rise of mammals."
In addition to Bruenn and Taylor, Robert W. Leach, scientific programmer at the Center for Computational Research in UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, is a co-author on the paper.
The authors are actively involved with the Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems and Bioinformatics strategic strength identified as part of the UB2020 strategic planning process.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/11494
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
High-speed genetic analysis looks deep inside primate immune system
Oct. 11, 2009
by Dave Tenenbaum
Viruses such as HIV and influenza take safe harbor in cells, where they cannot be recognized directly by the immune system. The immune response relies on infected cells announcing the presence of the virus by studding their exterior with fragments of the virus lurking within.
This system, called the "major histocompatibility complex" or MHC, is found in all mammalian immune systems. Although MHC genes are complicated, variable and difficult to read, a good "map" of the genes would help biologists understand why individuals have different responses to viruses.
Variations in the MHC genes could be key to some of medicine's best-kept secrets: why some rare "non-progressors" do not get AIDS despite long-term infection with HIV, why some people respond poorly to vaccines, and how best to harness the immune response to defeat viruses.
Now, in a study published today (Oct. 11) in Nature Medicine, a team of researchers at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown a high-speed method for analyzing the stubbornly complex MHC genes in three species of monkeys. "We have an abiding interest in the genes that are involved in immunity to pathogens," says David O'Connor, the study's senior author and deputy director of the primate center. "People around the world, like other mammals, have encountered pathogens that have shaped the genes that control their immune systems. These genes are highly variable, and have been very difficult to study with conventional methods."
The new study used "454 parallel sequencing," which is typically used to create a highly detailed, "deep" genome sequence of individual organisms. The Wisconsin team tweaked this technology. Instead of attaining the greatest detail on a small number of individuals, they sacrificed a bit of accuracy to look at hundreds of samples from macaque monkeys, animals that are widely used in immunology research. They found that each monkey expresses more than two dozen MHC genes, at least four times the number in humans. The genes varied greatly, reflecting each individual's geographic origin and the history of infection among its ancestors.
The sequencing was performed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the instrument maker, 454 Life Sciences, a division of Roche. "This study shows the tremendous potential of 454 sequencing to fundamentally change the way we study MHC genetics in human disease research," says Michael Egholm, chief technology officer and vice president of research and development at 454 Life Sciences.
Because variations in MHC plays such a key role in immunity, the new ability to "read" the structure of MHC genes should improve the efficiency of animal research, says Roger Wiseman, a geneticist and the study's lead author. "This will allow us to select better groups of animals for vaccine trials, perhaps allowing for fewer animals to be used in each study."
The high-speed sequencing technology "can be used to look at any highly variable gene in large numbers of samples simultaneously," adds O'Connor, whose laboratory has started using the technology to study immune responses and drug resistance in HIV/AIDS patients, correlating genetics with different responses to the virus. "We think this will help us understand why some people do much better than others. The global diversity of HIV and the MHC genes of infected people are complex and expensive to study."
"This idea of looking for drug-resistant mutations has already been applied to single patients," adds Wiseman, who is also in UW-Madison's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "We can now do this more economically on much larger groups of patients, which would be particularly useful in developing countries, where drug-resistance tests are seldom affordable." The United Nations just reported that about 4 million people in the developing world are taking anti-retroviral medicines for HIV.
Another application for rapid sequencing could be to screen potential donors for bone-marrow transplants, says Wiseman. "It's a bit down the road, but this could be used to tissue-type hundreds or thousands of individuals, maybe even an entire donor registry, in one fell swoop, and it could be faster, more thorough and less expensive than conventional techniques. This could produce better treatment outcomes by ensuring better tissue matches."
by Dave Tenenbaum
Viruses such as HIV and influenza take safe harbor in cells, where they cannot be recognized directly by the immune system. The immune response relies on infected cells announcing the presence of the virus by studding their exterior with fragments of the virus lurking within.
This system, called the "major histocompatibility complex" or MHC, is found in all mammalian immune systems. Although MHC genes are complicated, variable and difficult to read, a good "map" of the genes would help biologists understand why individuals have different responses to viruses.
Variations in the MHC genes could be key to some of medicine's best-kept secrets: why some rare "non-progressors" do not get AIDS despite long-term infection with HIV, why some people respond poorly to vaccines, and how best to harness the immune response to defeat viruses.
Now, in a study published today (Oct. 11) in Nature Medicine, a team of researchers at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown a high-speed method for analyzing the stubbornly complex MHC genes in three species of monkeys. "We have an abiding interest in the genes that are involved in immunity to pathogens," says David O'Connor, the study's senior author and deputy director of the primate center. "People around the world, like other mammals, have encountered pathogens that have shaped the genes that control their immune systems. These genes are highly variable, and have been very difficult to study with conventional methods."
The new study used "454 parallel sequencing," which is typically used to create a highly detailed, "deep" genome sequence of individual organisms. The Wisconsin team tweaked this technology. Instead of attaining the greatest detail on a small number of individuals, they sacrificed a bit of accuracy to look at hundreds of samples from macaque monkeys, animals that are widely used in immunology research. They found that each monkey expresses more than two dozen MHC genes, at least four times the number in humans. The genes varied greatly, reflecting each individual's geographic origin and the history of infection among its ancestors.
The sequencing was performed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the instrument maker, 454 Life Sciences, a division of Roche. "This study shows the tremendous potential of 454 sequencing to fundamentally change the way we study MHC genetics in human disease research," says Michael Egholm, chief technology officer and vice president of research and development at 454 Life Sciences.
Because variations in MHC plays such a key role in immunity, the new ability to "read" the structure of MHC genes should improve the efficiency of animal research, says Roger Wiseman, a geneticist and the study's lead author. "This will allow us to select better groups of animals for vaccine trials, perhaps allowing for fewer animals to be used in each study."
The high-speed sequencing technology "can be used to look at any highly variable gene in large numbers of samples simultaneously," adds O'Connor, whose laboratory has started using the technology to study immune responses and drug resistance in HIV/AIDS patients, correlating genetics with different responses to the virus. "We think this will help us understand why some people do much better than others. The global diversity of HIV and the MHC genes of infected people are complex and expensive to study."
"This idea of looking for drug-resistant mutations has already been applied to single patients," adds Wiseman, who is also in UW-Madison's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "We can now do this more economically on much larger groups of patients, which would be particularly useful in developing countries, where drug-resistance tests are seldom affordable." The United Nations just reported that about 4 million people in the developing world are taking anti-retroviral medicines for HIV.
Another application for rapid sequencing could be to screen potential donors for bone-marrow transplants, says Wiseman. "It's a bit down the road, but this could be used to tissue-type hundreds or thousands of individuals, maybe even an entire donor registry, in one fell swoop, and it could be faster, more thorough and less expensive than conventional techniques. This could produce better treatment outcomes by ensuring better tissue matches."
High-speed genetic analysis looks deep inside primate immune system
Oct. 11, 2009
by Dave Tenenbaum
Viruses such as HIV and influenza take safe harbor in cells, where they cannot be recognized directly by the immune system. The immune response relies on infected cells announcing the presence of the virus by studding their exterior with fragments of the virus lurking within.
This system, called the "major histocompatibility complex" or MHC, is found in all mammalian immune systems. Although MHC genes are complicated, variable and difficult to read, a good "map" of the genes would help biologists understand why individuals have different responses to viruses.
Variations in the MHC genes could be key to some of medicine's best-kept secrets: why some rare "non-progressors" do not get AIDS despite long-term infection with HIV, why some people respond poorly to vaccines, and how best to harness the immune response to defeat viruses.
Now, in a study published today (Oct. 11) in Nature Medicine, a team of researchers at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown a high-speed method for analyzing the stubbornly complex MHC genes in three species of monkeys. "We have an abiding interest in the genes that are involved in immunity to pathogens," says David O'Connor, the study's senior author and deputy director of the primate center. "People around the world, like other mammals, have encountered pathogens that have shaped the genes that control their immune systems. These genes are highly variable, and have been very difficult to study with conventional methods."
The new study used "454 parallel sequencing," which is typically used to create a highly detailed, "deep" genome sequence of individual organisms. The Wisconsin team tweaked this technology. Instead of attaining the greatest detail on a small number of individuals, they sacrificed a bit of accuracy to look at hundreds of samples from macaque monkeys, animals that are widely used in immunology research. They found that each monkey expresses more than two dozen MHC genes, at least four times the number in humans. The genes varied greatly, reflecting each individual's geographic origin and the history of infection among its ancestors.
The sequencing was performed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the instrument maker, 454 Life Sciences, a division of Roche. "This study shows the tremendous potential of 454 sequencing to fundamentally change the way we study MHC genetics in human disease research," says Michael Egholm, chief technology officer and vice president of research and development at 454 Life Sciences.
Because variations in MHC plays such a key role in immunity, the new ability to "read" the structure of MHC genes should improve the efficiency of animal research, says Roger Wiseman, a geneticist and the study's lead author. "This will allow us to select better groups of animals for vaccine trials, perhaps allowing for fewer animals to be used in each study."
The high-speed sequencing technology "can be used to look at any highly variable gene in large numbers of samples simultaneously," adds O'Connor, whose laboratory has started using the technology to study immune responses and drug resistance in HIV/AIDS patients, correlating genetics with different responses to the virus. "We think this will help us understand why some people do much better than others. The global diversity of HIV and the MHC genes of infected people are complex and expensive to study."
"This idea of looking for drug-resistant mutations has already been applied to single patients," adds Wiseman, who is also in UW-Madison's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "We can now do this more economically on much larger groups of patients, which would be particularly useful in developing countries, where drug-resistance tests are seldom affordable." The United Nations just reported that about 4 million people in the developing world are taking anti-retroviral medicines for HIV.
Another application for rapid sequencing could be to screen potential donors for bone-marrow transplants, says Wiseman. "It's a bit down the road, but this could be used to tissue-type hundreds or thousands of individuals, maybe even an entire donor registry, in one fell swoop, and it could be faster, more thorough and less expensive than conventional techniques. This could produce better treatment outcomes by ensuring better tissue matches."
by Dave Tenenbaum
Viruses such as HIV and influenza take safe harbor in cells, where they cannot be recognized directly by the immune system. The immune response relies on infected cells announcing the presence of the virus by studding their exterior with fragments of the virus lurking within.
This system, called the "major histocompatibility complex" or MHC, is found in all mammalian immune systems. Although MHC genes are complicated, variable and difficult to read, a good "map" of the genes would help biologists understand why individuals have different responses to viruses.
Variations in the MHC genes could be key to some of medicine's best-kept secrets: why some rare "non-progressors" do not get AIDS despite long-term infection with HIV, why some people respond poorly to vaccines, and how best to harness the immune response to defeat viruses.
Now, in a study published today (Oct. 11) in Nature Medicine, a team of researchers at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have shown a high-speed method for analyzing the stubbornly complex MHC genes in three species of monkeys. "We have an abiding interest in the genes that are involved in immunity to pathogens," says David O'Connor, the study's senior author and deputy director of the primate center. "People around the world, like other mammals, have encountered pathogens that have shaped the genes that control their immune systems. These genes are highly variable, and have been very difficult to study with conventional methods."
The new study used "454 parallel sequencing," which is typically used to create a highly detailed, "deep" genome sequence of individual organisms. The Wisconsin team tweaked this technology. Instead of attaining the greatest detail on a small number of individuals, they sacrificed a bit of accuracy to look at hundreds of samples from macaque monkeys, animals that are widely used in immunology research. They found that each monkey expresses more than two dozen MHC genes, at least four times the number in humans. The genes varied greatly, reflecting each individual's geographic origin and the history of infection among its ancestors.
The sequencing was performed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the instrument maker, 454 Life Sciences, a division of Roche. "This study shows the tremendous potential of 454 sequencing to fundamentally change the way we study MHC genetics in human disease research," says Michael Egholm, chief technology officer and vice president of research and development at 454 Life Sciences.
Because variations in MHC plays such a key role in immunity, the new ability to "read" the structure of MHC genes should improve the efficiency of animal research, says Roger Wiseman, a geneticist and the study's lead author. "This will allow us to select better groups of animals for vaccine trials, perhaps allowing for fewer animals to be used in each study."
The high-speed sequencing technology "can be used to look at any highly variable gene in large numbers of samples simultaneously," adds O'Connor, whose laboratory has started using the technology to study immune responses and drug resistance in HIV/AIDS patients, correlating genetics with different responses to the virus. "We think this will help us understand why some people do much better than others. The global diversity of HIV and the MHC genes of infected people are complex and expensive to study."
"This idea of looking for drug-resistant mutations has already been applied to single patients," adds Wiseman, who is also in UW-Madison's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "We can now do this more economically on much larger groups of patients, which would be particularly useful in developing countries, where drug-resistance tests are seldom affordable." The United Nations just reported that about 4 million people in the developing world are taking anti-retroviral medicines for HIV.
Another application for rapid sequencing could be to screen potential donors for bone-marrow transplants, says Wiseman. "It's a bit down the road, but this could be used to tissue-type hundreds or thousands of individuals, maybe even an entire donor registry, in one fell swoop, and it could be faster, more thorough and less expensive than conventional techniques. This could produce better treatment outcomes by ensuring better tissue matches."
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Researcher studies monkeys in Africa to better understand virus evolution
Left: Red colobus monkeys, such as the one pictured, are an endangered species in Africa. Tony Goldberg, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has discovered three new retroviruses (similar to the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV) in red colobus monkeys from Uganda. He hopes to learn as much as possible about transmission and evolution of these viruses. Photo by: courtesy Tony Goldberg, UW-Madison
MADISON - Despite the importance of AIDS in human health, scientists still know very little about the diversity and ecology of AIDS-like viruses in nature.
To help fill that knowledge gap, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is trying to gather information from an endangered species of monkeys in Africa before this resource is lost to habitat destruction or disease.
In a paper published in the November issue of the Journal of Virology, Tony Goldberg, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, notes the discovery of three new retroviruses in Ugandan red colobus monkeys. Retroviruses are viruses that are similar to the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).
"We didn't expect to find viruses that were so different," Goldberg says. "These are extremely different from what we've seen before in other primates, even in other red colobus."
Initially, he and his colleagues simply intended to document what viruses currently exist in red colobus monkeys in Uganda. They wanted to compare viruses from monkeys in east Africa to those in monkeys from west Africa.
Upon finding the new viruses, they asked Nelson Ting at the University of Iowa to compare the genetics of red colobus monkeys from western and eastern Africa.
"He found 4.5 million years of separation between the two geographically separated primate groups," Goldberg says. "This is a very big difference, and it may mean that the evolution of the viruses is linked to the evolution of the monkey host - an example of 'host-virus co-evolution.'"
Their work is part of a global effort to discover new viruses. As humans encroach on wildlife habitats, such as the Ugandan forests where these monkeys live, the potential for cross-species transmission increases. There is also the risk of species extinction, and the loss of valuable information about the microbes that these endangered species harbor.
"We are still discovering new pathogens out there that may have zoonotic potential," Goldberg notes.
He continues to explore how the disturbance of primate habitat (deforestation, forest fragmentation, etc) alters the rate of infectious disease transmission. His goal is to find keys to preventing future epidemics and protect human and animal health, and also protect the environments that people and wildlife share.
Collaborators on the project include the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative in San Francisco.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/15558
Researcher studies monkeys in Africa to better understand virus evolution
Left: Red colobus monkeys, such as the one pictured, are an endangered species in Africa. Tony Goldberg, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has discovered three new retroviruses (similar to the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV) in red colobus monkeys from Uganda. He hopes to learn as much as possible about transmission and evolution of these viruses. Photo by: courtesy Tony Goldberg, UW-Madison
MADISON - Despite the importance of AIDS in human health, scientists still know very little about the diversity and ecology of AIDS-like viruses in nature.
To help fill that knowledge gap, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is trying to gather information from an endangered species of monkeys in Africa before this resource is lost to habitat destruction or disease.
In a paper published in the November issue of the Journal of Virology, Tony Goldberg, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, notes the discovery of three new retroviruses in Ugandan red colobus monkeys. Retroviruses are viruses that are similar to the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).
"We didn't expect to find viruses that were so different," Goldberg says. "These are extremely different from what we've seen before in other primates, even in other red colobus."
Initially, he and his colleagues simply intended to document what viruses currently exist in red colobus monkeys in Uganda. They wanted to compare viruses from monkeys in east Africa to those in monkeys from west Africa.
Upon finding the new viruses, they asked Nelson Ting at the University of Iowa to compare the genetics of red colobus monkeys from western and eastern Africa.
"He found 4.5 million years of separation between the two geographically separated primate groups," Goldberg says. "This is a very big difference, and it may mean that the evolution of the viruses is linked to the evolution of the monkey host - an example of 'host-virus co-evolution.'"
Their work is part of a global effort to discover new viruses. As humans encroach on wildlife habitats, such as the Ugandan forests where these monkeys live, the potential for cross-species transmission increases. There is also the risk of species extinction, and the loss of valuable information about the microbes that these endangered species harbor.
"We are still discovering new pathogens out there that may have zoonotic potential," Goldberg notes.
He continues to explore how the disturbance of primate habitat (deforestation, forest fragmentation, etc) alters the rate of infectious disease transmission. His goal is to find keys to preventing future epidemics and protect human and animal health, and also protect the environments that people and wildlife share.
Collaborators on the project include the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative in San Francisco.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/15558
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