Editor’s Selections: Worms living inside your brain, cool insect viruses, and how the immune system recognizes danger
June 8th, 2012 Editor's Selections 14 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>.
- Adult tapeworms (Taenia) live in the intestine where they can grow as long as 6 meters. If the pre-adult form, called a cyst, enters the brain, it may cause a disease known as neurocysticerosis.
- Parasitoid wasps inject their eggs into a caterpillar along with a set of viruses specified within in the wasp genome. The viruses suppress the immune response of the parasitized host, allowing wasp eggs to develop unimpeded.
- Microbe-associated molecular patterns, or MAMPs, are present in bacteria and are recognized by the host immune system as foreign. Both MAMP and danger signals are required to trigger a strong immune response.
I’ll be back next Friday with more selections.
