Saturday, August 3, 2013

How Herpes Spreads: Virus Shoots DNA Into Human Cells

 Scientists have long theorized that herpes viruses are so stuffed with genetic material that infecting a host cell is as easy as popping a balloon. Or exploding a powder keg. The internal pressure within the virus is so great, it explodes its genetic material straight out of its virus shell and right into its desired host.
Pressure-driven infection has been observed previously in bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria cells, but scientists from Carnegie Mellon University now have the first experimental evidence that a eukaryotic virus, a virus that can infect cells with a nucleus, can do it. They've also been able to measure the pressure.

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How Herpes Spreads: Virus Shoots DNA Into Human Cells 





















Source: Popular Science

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

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