Origin and Evolution of Viruses

New viral diseases are emerging continuously. Viruses adapt to new environments at astounding rates. Genetic variability of viruses jeopardizes vaccine efficacy. For many viruses mutants resistant to antiviral agents or host immune responses arise readily, for example, with HIV and influenza. These variations are all of utmost importance for human and animal health as they have prevented us from controlling these epidemic pathogens. This book focuses on the mechanisms that viruses use to evolve, survive and cause disease in their hosts. Covering human, animal, plant and bacterial viruses, it provides both the basic foundations for the evolutionary dynamics of viruses and specific examples of emerging diseases.

* NEW - methods to establish relationships among viruses and the mechanisms that affect virus evolution
* UNIQUE - combines theoretical concepts in evolution with detailed analyses of the evolution of important virus groups
* SPECIFIC - Bacterial, plant, animal and human viruses are compared regarding their interation with their hosts

1. Early Replication: Origin and Evolution
2. Structure and Evolution of Viroids
3. Mutation, Competition and Selection as Measured with Small RNA Molecules
4. Viral Quasispecies: Dynamics, Interactions and Pathogenesis
5. Comparative Studies of RNA Virus Evolution
6. Nucleic Acid Polymerase Fidelity and Viral Population Fitness
7. The complex Interactions of Viruses and the RNAi Machinery: A Driving Force in Viral Evolution
8. The Role of the APOBEC3 Family of Cytidine Deaminases in Innate Immunity, G-to-A Hypermutation
9. Lethal Mutagenesis
10. Evolution of dsDNA Tailed Phages
11. More about Plant Virus Evolution – Past, Present and Future
12. Mutant clouds and bottleneck events in plant virus evolution
13. Retrovirus Evolution
14. Intra-host dynamics and evolution of HIV Infection
15. The Impact of Rapid Evolution of Hepatitis Viruses
16. Arbovirus Evolution
17. Evolution and Variation of the Parvoviruses
18. Genome Diversity and Evolution of Papillomaviruses
19. Origin and Evolution of Poxviruses
20. Molecular Evolution of the Herpesvirales
21. The widespread evolutional significance of viruses