Gopal Sreenivasan, Emotion and Virtue: Five Questions About Courage

Epistemic Courage and Epistemic Virtue

Five Questions about Microsporidia

Microsporidia are a diverse group of obligate intracellular eukaryotic parasites. There are approximately 1,300 formally described species in 160 genera [1], but this certainly represents a tiny fraction of the real diversity because most potential host lineages have been poorly surveyed. Nearly all microsporidia are known to infect animals, and some are responsible for a number of human diseas...

Five Questions about Mycoviruses

Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi. The first mycovirus was reported in 1962 from the cultivated mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; the infected mushrooms developed malformed fruiting bodies, grew slowly, and matured early, resulting in serious yield losses [1]. Like viruses that infect animals and plants, mycoviruses require the living cells of other organisms to replicate. While sharing some...

Five Questions about Viruses and MicroRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ,22-nt regulatory RNAs expressed by all multicellular eukaryotes [1]. Humans encode .700 miRNAs and similar numbers are likely to exist in other mammalian species. Almost all cellular miRNAs are initially transcribed by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) as part of a long, capped, polyadenylated primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) precursor. The miRNA forms part of one arm of an RNA stem-l...

Five Questions about Viral Trafficking in Neurons

One of the most exciting areas in biology is the nervous system and how it works. Viral infections of the nervous system have provided exceptional insight at many levels, from pathogenesis to basic biology. The nervous system has evolved rather complicated barriers that facilitate access to nutrients and contact with the outside world, but block entry of pathogens and toxins [1]. However, when ...