A bacteriophage, also known informally as a phage, is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν, meaning "to devour". Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structures that are either simple or elaborate. Their genomes may encode as few as four genes and as many as hundreds of genes. Phages replicate within the bacterium following the injection of their genome into its cytoplasm.
A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or may not correspond to individual proteins, are called capsomeres. The proteins making up the capsid are called capsid proteins or viral coat proteins (VCP). The capsid and inner genome is called the nucleocapsid.
A DNA vaccine is a type of vaccine that transfects a specific antigen-coding DNA sequence into the cells of an organism as a mechanism to induce an immune response.
Adenoviruses are medium-sized, nonenveloped viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double-stranded DNA genome. Their name derives from their initial isolation from human adenoids in 1953.
Escherichia virus T4 is a species of bacteriophages that infect Escherichia coli bacteria. It is a double-stranded DNA virus in the subfamily Tevenvirinae from the family Myoviridae. T4 is capable of undergoing only a lytic lifecycle and not the lysogenic lifecycle. The species was formerly named T-even bacteriophage, a name which also encompasses, among other strains, Enterobacteria phage T2, Enterobacteria phage T4 and Enterobacteria phage T6.
Filamentous bacteriophage is a family of viruses (Inoviridae) that infect bacteria. The phages are named for their filamentous shape, a worm-like chain, about 6 nm in diameter and about 1000-2000 nm long. The coat of the virion comprises five types of viral protein, which are located during phage assembly in the inner membrane of the host bacteria, and are added to the nascent virion as it extrudes through the membrane. This family's simplicity makes it an appealing model system to research fundamental molecular biology concepts, and it has also shown promise as a tool in nanotechnology and immunology.
Caudoviricetes is an class of viruses known as the tailed bacteriophages. Under the Baltimore classification scheme, the Caudoviricetes are group I viruses as they have double stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes, which can be anywhere from 18,000 base pairs to 500,000 base pairs in length. The virus particles have a distinct shape; each virion has an icosahedral head that contains the viral genome, and is attached to a flexible tail by a connector protein. The order encompasses a wide range of viruses, many containing genes of similar nucleotide sequence and function. However, some tailed bacteriophage genomes can vary quite significantly in nucleotide sequence, even among the same genus. Due to their characteristic structure and possession of potentially homologous genes, it is believed these bacteriophages possess a common origin.
Epsilon 15 is a virus, specifically a bacteriophage, known to infect species of Salmonella bacteria including Salmonella anatum.The virus is a short, tailed phage with a double-stranded DNA genome of 39,671 base pairs and 49 open reading frames.
A-DNA is one of the possible double helical structures which DNA can adopt. A-DNA is thought to be one of three biologically active double helical structures along with B-DNA and Z-DNA. It is a right-handed double helix fairly similar to the more common B-DNA form, but with a shorter, more compact helical structure whose base pairs are not perpendicular to the helix-axis as in B-DNA. It was discovered by Rosalind Franklin, who also named the A and B forms. She showed that DNA is driven into the A form when under dehydrating conditions. Such conditions are commonly used to form crystals, and many DNA crystal structures are in the A form. The same helical conformation occurs in double-stranded RNAs, and in DNA-RNA hybrid double helices.
Bacillus virus Φ29 is a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) bacteriophage with a prolate icosahedral head and a short tail that belongs to the genus Salasvirus, order Caudovirales, and family Salasmaviridae. They are in the same order as phages PZA, Φ15, BS32, B103, M2Y (M2), Nf, and GA-1. First discovered in 1965, the Φ29 phage is the smallest Bacillus phage isolated to date and is among the smallest known dsDNA phages.
Harald zur Hausen NAS EASA APS is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 9,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. The study of viruses is known as virology, a subspeciality of microbiology.
Rauchvirus is a genus of viruses in the order Caudovirales, in the family Podoviridae. Bacteria serve as natural hosts. The genus contains only one species: Bordetella virus BPP1.
Enterobacteria phage P4 is a temperate bacteriophage strain of species Escherichia virus P2 within genus Peduovirus, subfamily Peduovirinae, family Myoviridae. It is a satellite virus, requiring P2-related helper phage to grow lytically.
Stephen C. Harrison is professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, professor of pediatrics, and director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics of Harvard Medical School, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Synthetic virology is a branch of virology engaged in the study and engineering of synthetic man-made viruses. It is a multidisciplinary research field at the intersection of virology, synthetic biology, computational biology, and DNA nanotechnology, from which it borrows and integrates its concepts and methodologies. There is a wide range of applications for synthetic viral technology such as medical treatments, investigative tools, and reviving organisms.
Helios Murialdo is a Chilean-Canadian molecular biologist, fiction writer, and ecologist. His research in the field of the assembly and structure of bacterial viruses contributed to the development of the first system for the cloning of human genes. He has published six novels and is a member of a group of conservationists that established a Natural Reserve in the central part of the Chilean Biodiversity Hotspot. Son of an Italian immigrant father and a Chilean mother of French descent, he has a brother and a sister. He is a member of the board of directors of the non-profit Fundación Ciencia & Vida, a scientific and technological institution with headquarters in Santiago, Chile. He is president of the NGO Corporación Altos de Cantillana, which manages the 26,000 acres of the Altos de Cantillana Natural Reserve in the coastal mountains of central Chile. He makes his home in this Natural Reserve, and spends the rest of the year in Toronto, Canada.
Duplodnaviria is a realm of viruses that includes all double-stranded DNA viruses that encode the HK97 fold major capsid protein. The HK97 fold major capsid protein is the primary component of the viral capsid, which stores the viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Viruses in the realm also share a number of other characteristics, such as an icosahedral capsid, an opening in the viral capsid called a portal, a protease enzyme that empties the inside of the capsid prior to DNA packaging, and a terminase enzyme that packages viral DNA into the capsid.
Varidnaviria is a realm of viruses that includes all DNA viruses that encode major capsid proteins that contain a vertical jelly roll fold. The major capsid proteins (MCP) form into pseudohexameric subunits of the viral capsid, which stores the viral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and are perpendicular, or vertical, to the surface of the capsid. Apart from this, viruses in the realm also share many other characteristics, such as minor capsid proteins (mCP) with the vertical jelly roll fold, an ATPase that packages viral DNA into the capsid, and a DNA polymerase that replicates the viral genome.
COVI-VAC is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Codagenix, Inc. In December 2020, COVI-VAC started a Phase I clinical trial, involving 48 participants. The trial was scheduled to complete in June 2021, with results to be reported by May 2022. On September 29, 2021, Codagenix presented positive phase 1 data for COVI-VAC at IDWEEK2021. Data indicates that COVI-VAC is well tolerated, with no significant adverse events reported and that administration of the intranasal vaccine was immunogenic and capable of blocking nasal replication of the virus with minimal viral shedding, recorded at levels lower than those likely to result in subsequent transmission of COVID-19. Furthermore, COVI-VAC was shown to stimulate both serum and mucosal antibody immune responses.
