Lecture 2 Flashcards
What are two factors associated with scientific discovery?
1) Availability of technologies
2) The ability to recognize and the courage to accept something new
Who discovered the first ever virus?
Adolf Mayer
What happened in 1879 with the first ever virus?
Extracts from tobacco showing mosaic symptoms were infectious
Unable to culture on Petri dish or observe bacterial growth
Fungus was not involved
What happened in 1882 with the first ever virus?
Initial Conclusion: “soluble, enzyme like contagium”
What happened in 1886 with the first ever virus?
Publication: “An unknown bacterium” –> but actually not a bacteria
What was the first ever virus, and what was the issue?
Tobacco Mosaic Virus, and their was a decline of production in tobacco due to a disease, so what was happening
In 1892 what happened with the first ever virus?
Dmitri Ivanovsky filtered tobacco extract through a bacteria proof filter, but the filtrate was still infections, and he reported to the Russian Academy of Sciences that the “filter must be defective”
In 1898 what happened with the first ever virus?
Martinus Beijerinick passed the filter, diluted the filtrate, inoculated healthy tobacco and then replenished: Ultimately, “Contagium vivum fluidum” (contagious living fluid)
What happened in 1935 with TMV?
Wendell Stanley crystallized TMV and concluded that the virus is protein in nature
What happened in 1936 with TMV?
Bawden and Pirie determined that the TMV particles contained RNA (5%)
What happened in 1939 with TMV?
Helmut Ruska performed the first visualization of TMV with EM
What happened in the 1950s with TMV?
Fraenkel-Conrat group purified viruses from tobacco, separating into capsid protein and RNA, tested several combinations for infectivity
What did the Fraenkel-Conrat group discover about TMV (3)?
CP alone that assembles into virions was non-infectious, CP and RNA was infectious, and RNA was infectious
What was the overall conclusion that the Fraenkel-Conrat group made?
RNA and not protein is the genetic material in TMV
What happened with Loeffler & Frosch?
In 1898, they found that a filterable virus from cattle infected with FMD remained infectious
What are the consequences of FMD?
High fever, reduction in milk and beef, infertility of female cattle, often fatal in calves. Repeated vaccination is required to prevent disease
Describe FMD
FMD is the most contagious and dreaded viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals: Fecal-oral route
Where is the FMD free zone?
North & Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, continental Europe
What was the first virus discovered in human?
Yellow fever, which was a highly fatal endemic in tropical & subtropical countries
What are the natural hosts of yellow fever?
Monkeys and mosquitos
What does yellow fever do to the body?
Damage to liver, which causes jaundice
How did yellow fever become serious?
Introduced to the New world via slaves trades and multiple epidemics in continental USA
What happened in Philadelphia in 1793?
There was a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 which killed off 15% of the population
How was yellow fever suspected to be transmitted?
Transmissible by insects, Dr. Carlos Finlay
How was yellow fever treated?
Yellow fever commission by US congress
Human volunteers recruited for vector transmission studies: 19 people were tested, 8 were infected, and 3 died, including an army doctor
Ultimately how was yellow fever caused?
by a vector borne filterable virus, discovered by Reed and his team, 1901
In regards to phages, what happened in 1915 (Twort)?
Frederick Twort attempted to culture vaccinia; contamination, glassy transformation
In regards to phages, what happened in 1915 (d’Herelle)?
Felix d’Herelle: invisible antagonistic microbe of dysentery (Shigella) among soldiers resulting in plaque formation
In regards to phages, what happened in 1939?
Delbruck and Ellis: One step growth curve
In regards to phages, what happened in 1940?
Luria and Delbruck established a “phage group”