From Hot Springs to HIV, Same Protein Complexes Are Hijacked to Promote Viruses
Monday, June 10, 2013 - 15:35
in Biology & Nature
Biologists from Indiana University and Montana State University have discovered a striking connection between viruses such as HIV and Ebola and viruses that infect organisms called archaea that grow in volcanic hot springs. Despite the huge difference in environments and a 2 billion year evolutionary time span between archaea and humans, the viruses hijack the same set of proteins to break out of infected cells.