Editor’s Selections: Viruses controlling mosquito blood feeding, pneumonic plague transmission, and Baylisascariasis
April 6th, 2012 Editor's Selections 4 Comments
Vincent Racaniello selects several notable posts each week from molecular and cellular biology and virology. He unravels viruses at virology blog.
<img title=”Vincent Racaniello” src=”http://researchblogging.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/smallvincent.jpg” alt=”Vincent Racaniello” width=”47″ height=”47″ />Vincent Racaniello selects several notable posts each week from molecular and cellular biology and virology. He writes about viruses at <a href=”http://www.virology.ws” target=”_blank”>virology blog</a>.
- Upon infection with dengue virus, the mosquito vector A. aegypti turns on a number of genes in the salivary glands involved in immunity. Two genes encode odorant-binding proteins that host seeking and blood feeding, meaning that the virus might be regulating how the vector finds a host.
- A study of all cases of primary pneumonic plague in the US between 1900-2009 revealed that most of the time the disease quickly reaches extinction due to poor transmission. The caveat is that super spreading events early in the outbreak can lead to an explosive increase in case numbers.
- Baylisascariasis describes the human infection with the raccoon roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis. The large worms can cause tissue trauma and neurological symptoms.
I’ll be back next Friday with more selections.
