The evolution of a new species can occur rapidly enough for them to observe the process in a simple laboratory flask, biologists have discovered. In a month-long experiment using a virus har... Read more
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is an unforgiving killer of horses, donkeys and zebras, resulting in mortality as high as 80 percent of infected animals. It causes rapid, catastr... Read more
When viruses infect us, they can embed small chunks of their genetic material in our DNA. Although infrequent, the incorporation of this material into the human genome has been occurring for... Read more
A groundbreaking study of the virosphere of the most populous animals — those without backbones such as insects, spiders and worms and that live around our houses — has uncovered... Read more
The transparent belly of a tiny beast has revealed how algae-infecting chloroviruses bloom in freshwater around the world, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Publishin... Read more
As mammals evolve, so do mammalian viruses. In doing so, they develop creative and effective ways to counter and evade the antiviral responses of their mammal hosts’ immune systems. Research... Read more
The number of microbes in, on, and around the planet — on the order of a nonillion, or 10^30 — is estimated to outnumber the stars in the Milky Way. Microbes are known to play cr... Read more
RNA viruses exhibit a variety of genome organization strategies, including multicomponent genomes in which each segment is packaged separately. Although multicomponent genomes are common amo... Read more
Viruses are tidily categorized into three groups according to the hosts they infect – bacteriophages, eukaryotic viruses, and archaeal viruses. Viruses do not infect hosts in another domain... Read more
The 2014-15 outbreak of avian flu was likely driven by long-distant migrant birds, a new study reveals. The finding could help inform future efforts to thwart outbreaks. Beginning in 2014, a... Read more