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Book Cover
E-book
Author Skalka, Anna Marie, author

Title Discovering retroviruses : beacons in the biosphere / Anne Marie Skalka
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018
©2018

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 177 pages) : color illustrations, color map
Contents Early pioneers -- Amending the central dogma -- The origin of retroviruses -- Retroviruses and evolution -- Revealing the genetic basis of cancer -- HIV and the AIDS pandemic
Summary When invading a host cell, viruses seize cell machinery to make copies of their own genes. The immune system recognizes the invasion. In contrast, retroviruses colonize host cells through the process of reverse transcriptase. Retroviruses open host cell DNA and graft in their retroviral RNA, integrating into the host genome. The immune system has difficulty recognizing or ridding of foreign DNA that has become its own. Discovering Retroviruses presents the history of retrovirus discovery. Skalka illuminates retroviruses' role in evolution, human health, and disease, from the first sighting at the end of the nineteenth century to recent use in genetic engineering. Retroviral sequences in the human genome mark sites where endogenous retrovirus integrated over six million years ago. The 100,000 pieces of retrovirus DNA are remnants from germ line cell invasions and total approximately eight percent of the human genome. Through investigation of animal and human retroviral sequences, we know retroviral mutations can lead to cancers and immunodeficiencies, including HIV and leukemia. Today, researchers harness retroviruses for use in gene delivery systems and precision medicine advances. Discovering Retroviruses offers a lively perspective on stories of the major pioneers of the past century and the extraordinary roads to their discoveries, and demonstrates the growing importance of genetics to modern biomedicine.-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-170) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Retroviruses.
Retrovirus infections.
Viruses -- Evolution.
Medicine -- Research -- History
Medicine -- History.
Retroviridae
Retroviridae Infections
Viruses -- growth & development
History of Medicine
history of medicine.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Biology.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Microbiology.
Medicine
Medicine -- Research
Retrovirus infections
Retroviruses
Viruses -- Evolution
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780674988774
0674988779