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SELECTIVE PRESSURE. "Viruses can affect the fitness of their hosts and thus often impose a selection pressure. Cellular organisms have evolved a variety of defense systems against invading viruses." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn

"VIRUSES either induce or inhibit various mitochondrial processes in a highly specific manner so that they can replicate and produce progeny. Some viruses encode the Bcl2 homologues to counter the proapoptotic functions of the cellular and mitochondrial proteins. Others modulate the permeability transition pore and either prevent or induce the release of the apoptotic proteins from the mitochondria." https://lnkd.in/eFuy4KS View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT IN NATURE for the next three weekends focuses on how viruses, and then parasites, can hijack their host's molecular machinery in order to complete their lifestyles. Over the course of millions of years, a molecular arms race has been gamed by parasites and their hosts, and will continue. The biochemical and genetic strategies employed point to exquisite fine-tuning of evolutionary capabilities. View in LinkedIn

SNAPSHOT. "Here we present the atomic details of the step-by-step arms race between tomato mosaic virus replication protein and the host inhibitor protein Tm-1, in which host recognition of a viral molecule, viral adaptive evasion of the recognition, host counteradaptation, and viral counter- counteradaptation are depicted by determination of the complex structures of Tm-1 variants and the viral protein and by biochemical analyses and molecular dynamics simulations of the interactions between these proteins." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn

New plastic-eating bacteria could help save planet http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/11/world/bacteria-discovery-plastic/index.html View in LinkedIn

RED QUEEN VINDICATED. "These data are unique in experimentally confirming the requisite conditions of the antagonistic coevolution model of MHC evolution and providing quantification of fitness effects for pathogen and host...evidence in support of antagonistic coevolution also offers partial solutions to problems associated with endangered species, antibiotic resistance, emerging infectious diseases, and the evolution of sex." https://lnkd.in/ebmDVYK View in LinkedIn

RED QUEEN. "We can think of the Red Queen's Hypothesis in terms of an unorthodox game theory. To a good approximation, each species is part of a zero-sum game against other species. Which adversary is most important for a species may vary from time to time and for some or even most species no one adversary may ever be paramount. Furthermore, no species can ever win, and new adversaries grinningly replace the losers." https://lnkd.in/e6cFJ9c View in LinkedIn

CO-EVOLUTION. "The Red Queen hypothesis proposes that host defense genes evolve to counter the adverse effects of rapidly evolving invasive viruses." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn

POSITIVE SELECTION. "Host genomes are continually selected to encode sensors that better recognize viruses, and viruses are continually selected to evade or disrupt these sensors. This ongoing evolutionary struggle is called a molecular “arms race”. Arms races play out in the protein–protein interactions that exist between host and virus proteins, and they drive endless rounds of “positive selection” for mutations that alter these interactions." https://lnkd.in/eGuH7sA View in LinkedIn

SINGLE MUTATION DEFENSE. "Ebola virus infects host cells by attaching its surface glycoprotein to a host cell receptor called NPC1...We mapped this resistance to a single amino acid change in the NPC1 gene of this bat...This tiny change prevents Ebola from binding to the NPC1 receptor." https://lnkd.in/eb99UC6 View in LinkedIn