Sep 26, 2020
Another in a series focusing on
viral characteristics, returning guest Luis Villarreal graces
listeners with an in-depth and elegant collection of thoughts on
how viruses behave.
He shares a lifetime of knowledge, discussing
- What a virus' ability to communicate meaningful biological information adds to the "are viruses living" question,
- How our very immune system existence may stem from virus-cell interaction, and
- Why we need to rethink how "fitness" works as a virus evolution impact factor.
Luis Villarreal is a professor
emeritus in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at
the University of California, Irvine, and is the founding director
of The Center for Virus Research. He's spent the bulk of his career
on virology. His fascination began when he came across an image of
a crystalline array of an RNA virus in the cytoplasm of an infected
cell.
He was intrigued by the interface of life and chemistry and it
struck him that all viruses existed in that interface. Therefore,
when Richard asks if "viruses
are living or nonliving," he verbalizes the answer in terms of
this interface, emphasizing that viruses have always provided one
of the more important or crucial aspects of communication into all
living entities. This communication is essential in virus-host cell
interaction.
The conversation continues in
this same tenor, characterizing viruses as existing in dynamic
relationships that determine virus evolution over time. He offers
HIV as an example of addressing the seat of control with the host
cell versus the virus. After HIV infection, other viruses in human
cells started to reactivate because of this give-and-take control
dynamic: there's no one controlling factor or outcome. Rather, it's
all about biological strategies clashing.
Stories about these clashes continue through the discussion, and he
address the origin and evolution of viruses and
how viruses persist with answers that take all elements of
these dynamic relationships into account, including one example
from a graduate school undiluted viral passage study. He found that
the eventual defective virus that evolved, which was what might be
termed "unfit," exerted tremendous control over the infective
virus. Perhaps, he adds, we need to reimage how we apply
evolutionary biology to viruses.
For examples of his work, find
numerous listing in ResearchGate.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK