Comments on: Book review – Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere

By: Book review – Viruses: A Natural History | The Inquisitive Biologist

Book review – Viruses: A Natural History | The Inquisitive Biologist — Tue, 23 May 2023 11:56:16 +0000

[…] was particularly fascinated by the role of viruses in evolution. I have written before about retroviruses, viruses that integrate themselves into the genetic material of their host. Roossinck points out […]

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By: Book review – A Planet of Viruses (Third Edition) | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:42:37 +0000

[…] that we may have acquired some of their viruses, such as the cancer-causing human papillomavirus. Retroviruses, meanwhile, go far beyond taking over a host’s cellular machinery: they nestle themselves […]

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By: Book review – Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 14:59:26 +0000

[…] another option for rapid evolution (see my reviews of Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention and Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere). We even have turned this into a powerful biotechnological tool, CRISPR, that allows fine-scale […]

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By: Book review – Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 12:20:55 +0000

[…] Quammen also shines when it comes to memorable metaphors and masterful distillation of technical details. All of this is helped by crisp writing, short and straightforward sentences, and the repeating of salient points. He knows the details are complicated, yet he enlightens you in a conversational tone without ever being condescending. He is equally at ease giving you a potted history of the important epidemiological parameter R0, as he is highlighting the unique character of retroviruses such as HIV. The former is the basic reproduction number that you will have seen in the news lately (see also The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread – and Why They Stop), the latter was discussed more in-depth in my review of Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere. […]

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By: Book review – Virusphere: From Common Colds to Ebola Epidemics: Why We Need the Viruses that Plague Us | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:50:16 +0000

[…] in the genome of hosts. Especially retroviruses such as HIV-1 do this (more on those in Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere). The striking bit, as Ryan explains, is that some of these inserts have been repurposed by hosts […]

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By: Book review – Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:49:05 +0000

[…] make themselves. Our DNA is a veritable junkyard of broken genes, ancient viral DNA (see also Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere), and stretches of self-copying DNA (or transposable elements). Together, these make up an […]

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By: Book review – The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:47:47 +0000

[…] 2-3% material traceable to Neanderthals, but another 8% came from viruses (see the forthcoming Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere). And then there is, of course, CRISPR, a sort of molecular vaccination card that bacteria employ […]

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By: Book review – Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:46:27 +0000

[…] A large part of the book deals with human viruses and the diseases they cause: influenza, HIV-1 and AIDS, ebolavirus, cross-species infections and animal reservoirs of viral zoonoses (i.e. diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans), and the unique world of retroviruses. Most of these topics have been the subject of dedicated books (e.g. Virus Hunt: The Search for the Origin of HIV/Aids, Ebola: Profile of a Killer Virus, and Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic), though not yet retroviruses. This group *must* nestle themselves into the host’s DNA before they can replicate, which means they are by definition heritable. In contrast, most other viruses will use their host for their own replication, but if the host survives and reproduces, the viral DNA is not passed on to the host’s offspring. Skalka writes more about these unique viruses in Discovering Retroviruses: Beacons in the Biosphere. […]

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