Influenza infection is initiated by virus attachment to sialic acid-containing cell-surface receptors. The spectrum of sialylglycoconjugates varies substantially between viral host species as well as target tissues and cell types of the same species, leading to variations in the receptor-binding specificity of viruses circulating in these hosts. Therefore, receptor specificity plays an importan...

Methylotrophic bacteria able to grow on one-carbon compounds, such as methanol and monomethylamine, as sole carbon sources have received considerable attention because of their potential commercial applications, including the production of single-cell protein, amino acids, pyrroloquinoline quinone, and poly-3-hydroxybutyrate. The utility of methylotrophs should be increased by the use of recomb...

Parasites may be expected to become locally adapted to their hosts. However, while many empirical studies have demonstrated local parasite adaptation, others have failed to demonstrate it, or have shown local parasite maladaptation. Researchers have suggested that gene flow can swamp local parasite-host dynamics and produce local adaptation only at certain geographical scales; others have argue...

An updated literature survey identified 1,407 recognized species of human pathogen, 58% of which are zoonotic. Of the total, 177 are regarded as emerging or reemerging. Zoonotic pathogens are twice as likely to be in this category as are nonzoonotic pathogens. Emerging and reemerging pathogens are not strongly associated with particular types of nonhuman hosts, but they are most likely to have ...

Feline morbillivirus (FmoPV) is an emerging virus in cats, which is associated with tubulointerstitial nephritis. To study the in vitro host range of FmoPV, we inoculated FmoPV strain SS1 to 32 cell lines originated from 13 species and cultured for 2 weeks, followed by RNA extraction and reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction for FmoPV detection. As a result, only cell lines derived fr...

A line of polyoma-transformed mouse cells has been isolated which is fully susceptible to lytic infection by polyoma virus. This line has been used to select virus mutants which have lost most or all of their ability to grow in the untransformed parental line while retaining the ability to grow in the transformed derivative. These virus mutants are also defective in their ability to transform c...