Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is classified as a non-enveloped Picornavirus. That may have to change, or at least be more specific. Via electron microscopy, this team found a certain percentage of these viruses were enveloped in exosome-sized particles. Up to 4 virions were found inside these membrane enveloped vesicles. In ...

The influenza virus genome consists of eight negative sense RNA segments. The segmentation allows efficient genetic exchange among influenza viruses co-infecting the same cell. But this strategy has its costs, namely, that each virion has to ensure that all eight segments are specifically packaged for a productive infection. ...

The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) system is a bacterial RNA interference-like system which captures short fragments of DNA from plasmids, phage, and other nucleic acid parasites. After being expressed, these molecules then serve as a surveillance system where base pairing to homologous invading phages/plasmids subsequently leads ...

A toxin-antitoxin system is a set of two or more closely linked genes that together encode both a protein 'poison' and a corresponding 'antidote'. There are 3 types of these systems: Type I toxin-antitoxin systems rely on the base-pairing of complementary antitoxin RNA with the toxin's mRNA, Type 2 ...

Measles virions have two envelope glycoproteins, a receptor binding hemagluttinin (H) and a fusion protein (F). When H binds to its cellular receptor, it is thought that the F protein undergoes conformational changes that assist in virus-cell fusion as well as cell-to-cell fusion. The ladder also called syncytium ...

Previously, this group identified a new virophage, Sputnik 2, in the contact lens fluid of a patient with keratitis. This paper however, found that this Sputnik 2 could integrate into its viral host's genome (Lentille virus). Upon massive SOLiD genome sequencing investigating its integration, they then found a ...