Editor’s Selections: Worms living inside your brain, cool insect viruses, and how the immune system recognizes danger
June 8th, 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>.
- 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.
