Quantitative Viral Ecology: Dynamics of Viruses and Their Microbial Hosts (Monographs in Population Biology, 55, Band 55) - Hardcover

Weitz, Joshua S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691161542 ISBN 13: 9780691161549

Verlag: Princeton University Press, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

When we think about viruses we tend to consider ones that afflict humans—such as those that cause influenza, HIV, and Ebola. Yet, vastly more viruses infect single-celled microbes. Diverse and abundant, microbes and the viruses that infect them are found in oceans, lakes, plants, soil, and animal-associated microbiomes. Taking a vital look at the "microscopic" mode of disease dynamics, Quantitative Viral Ecology establishes a theoretical foundation from which to model and predict the ecological and evolutionary dynamics that result from the interaction between viruses and their microbial hosts.

Joshua Weitz addresses three major questions: What are viruses of microbes and what do they do to their hosts? How do interactions of a single virus-host pair affect the number and traits of hosts and virus populations? How do virus-host dynamics emerge in natural environments when interactions take place between many viruses and many hosts? Emphasizing how theory and models can provide answers, Weitz offers a cohesive framework for tackling new challenges in the study of viruses and microbes and how they are connected to ecological processes—from the laboratory to the Earth system.

Quantitative Viral Ecology is an innovative exploration of the influence of viruses in our complex natural world.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joshua S. Weitz is associate professor of biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

"Quantitative Viral Ecology is exactly the book we need for the field. Until now everyone had to go to the primary literature to find good quantitative arguments in virology, but in this book, Weitz provides us with necessary principles and clear explanations. This volume will be useful for students new to the subject as well as anyone needing to refresh their knowledge of the discipline."--Forest Rohwer, San Diego State University

"Joshua Weitz delivers a beautifully written book that captures the important and rapidly growing field of modern viral ecology. As one of the emerging leaders of the field's transformation into a quantitative discipline, Weitz provides many clear, accessible examples of how mathematical modeling can lead to dramatic new insights into virus-host interactions and the rich variety of phenomena that accompany them. This is a book that can be profitably read by researchers at all levels, whether from a biological or quantitative background."--Nigel Goldenfeld, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

"Drawing upon theoretical methods used in ecology and virology, as well as developing new approaches, Weitz has produced a pathbreaking book that provides a synthesis of existing knowledge and a way forward to original discoveries."--Alan Hastings, University of California, Davis

"Mathematical models are necessary tools for understanding the population dynamics of viruses. A large value of this book is its potential as a bridge between pure modeling and experimental/observational work in the field. Weitz's knowledge of the historical background is excellent and he uses entertaining, informative content and highly relevant cases throughout."--Tron Frede Thingstad, University of Bergen

"In recent years, there has been a swelling wave of awareness by microbiologists and ecologists regarding the significance of viruses in natural environments. In this book, Weitz synthesizes a wide range of empirical knowledge with rigorous population dynamical models to encapsulate the interactions among viruses and their microbial hosts. Weitz is at the top of his field and his breadth of knowledge is impressive."--Robert D. Holt, University of Florida

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Quantitative Viral Ecology

Dynamics of Viruses and Their Microbial Hosts

By Joshua S. Weitz

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2015 Princeton University
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-691-16154-9

Contents

Acknowledgments, xi, 
Preface, xiii, 
I VIROLOGY: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, 1, 
1. What Is a Virus?, 33, 
2. Viral Life History Traits, 24, 
II POPULATION AND EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF VIRUSES AND THEIR MICROBIAL HOSTS, 55, 
3. Population Dynamics of Viruses and Microbes, 57, 
4. Evolutionary Dynamics of Viruses or Microbes, but Not Both, 89, 
5. Coevolutionary Dynamics of Viruses and Microbes, 125, 
III VIRAL ECOLOGY IN THE OCEANS: A MODEL SYSTEM FOR MEASUREMENT AND INFERENCE, 161, 
6. Ocean Viruses: On Their Abundance, Diversity, and Target Hosts, 163, 
7. Virus-Host Dynamics in a Complex Milieu, 201, 
8. The Future of Quantitative Viral Ecology, 236, 
TECHNICAL APPENDIXES, 245, 
A. Viral Life History Traits, 247, 
B. Population Dynamics of Viruses and Microbes, 258, 
C. Evolutionary Dynamics of Viruses or Microbes, but Not Both, 278, 
D. Ocean Viruses: On Their Abundance, Diversity, and Target Hosts, 286, 
E. Virus-Host Dynamics in a Complex Milieu, 288, 
Bibliography, 293, 
Index, 319, 

CHAPTER 1

What Is a Virus?

1.1 WHAT IS A VIRUS?

Efforts to define a virus inevitably raise the question of exceptions. Nonetheless, a definition or two can help guide us in identifying what is common to all viruses.

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: an extremely small living thing that causes a disease and that spreads from one person or animal to another.

Introduction to Modern Virology: submicroscopic, parasitic particles of genetic material contained in a protein coat (Dimmock et al. 2007).

These two definitions are useful, as they reflect the difference in perception as well as current understanding of what a virus is. In that respect, the roots of the term virus are also revealing:

Oxford English Dictionary: late Middle English (denoting the venom of a snake): from Latin, literally "slimy liquid, poison."

Irrespective of source, it would seem that viruses have a bad reputation. Informal surveys tend to yield similar results. For example, when I ask undergraduates to name a virus, some of the most common answers are HIV, influenza, Ebola, chickenpox, herpes, rabies — not a friendly one in the bunch. The answers represent a typical conflation of the disease with the virus. Nonetheless, this conflation is not entirely inappropriate, as viruses do often negatively affect their hosts, whether by causing disease in humans, plants, or animals or killing their microbial hosts.

In fact, one version of the history of viruses begins more or less as follows (Dimmock et al. 2007) — with smallpox. Smallpox is one of the most vicious of diseases, with historical estimates of mortality rates on the order of 30%. Smallpox is caused by a virus, so-called variola, from the Latin varius or varus meaning "stained" or "mark on the skin," respectively (Riedel 2005). In 1796, Edward Jenner, a surgeon and scientist, made a bold hypothesis based on the common lore that dairymaids did not suffer from smallpox, perhaps because they had been exposed to an apparently similar disease that affected cows, that is, cowpox. Jenner hypothesized that exposure to cowpox led to protection against smallpox. To test this hypothesis, he transferred material from a fresh cowpox lesion of a dairymaid to an 8-year-old boy who had no prior signs of having been exposed to either cowpox or smallpox. The transfer was likely done with a lancet, directly into the arm of the young boy, who then had a mild reaction — similar to the side effects of modern vaccines — but quickly recovered. Then, Jenner did something remarkable, ghastly, but ultimately providential: two months later he returned and inoculated the same boy with material taken from a new smallpox lesion! Remarkably, the boy did not get sick. This event was widely credited, after Jenner's death, as being the first example of a successful vaccination — as it turns out, a vaccination against what later became known as the smallpox virus.

Viruses as agents of disease and death seem to be the common theme, both in the popular and historical understanding. This bad reputation is similar to that ascribed to bacteria, that is, until recently. Bacteria, which were once considered exclusively "bad" because they cause such diseases as cholera, meningitis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have had their image redeemed, at least in part. That yogurt companies can market the benefits of products enriched with additional naturally occurring Lactococcus cells, that fecal transplants are being considered as a means to stimulate normal digestive tract function, and that the American Society of Microbiology now regularly convenes a meeting on beneficial microbes suggests a reformation in both the scientific and popular opinion of bacteria.

Now, imagine for a moment a yogurt enriched with viruses. This does not seem like a good sales pitch. Or imagine instead, an ocean of viruses. Do you want to go swimming? In fact, a swimmer entering coastal waters for a dip could fill up a single liter bottle and find more than 10 billion, if not 100 billion, virus-like particles. This swimmer is unlikely to get sick, at least not from the viruses. The reasons include the strength of the human immune system and the type of viruses that are found in seawater. Ocean viruses are predominantly viruses of microorganisms and do not have direct effects on human cells. What they do to associated microbes remains an important but ongoing question. Indeed, an alternative history of viruses begins with the viruses of bacteria and constitutes the basis for a far more nuanced view of the range of effects that viruses may have than what is now considered the norm.

This history begins in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, when microbiologists — also known as "microbe hunters" — such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch were trying to identify the causative agents of disease and to find cures for them (de Kruif 2002). Two microbiologists of the next generation of microbe hunters, Frederick Twort, a British microbiologist, and Felix d'Herelle, a French physician, independently observed a curious phenomenon of clearing in solutions and on plates otherwise replete with bacteria (Twort 1915; d'Herelle 1917). Both Twort and d'Herelle passed the material through a series of filters and chemical preparations that should have eliminated any bacterial or predatory organisms like protists. The filtered material derived from the remains of killed bacteria continued to kill newly grown cultures of cells. Twort thought it was an enzyme that killed bacteria, whereas d'Herelle speculated that a small organism was responsible. He called the small, unseen organism a bacteriophage or "bacteria eater," from the Greek word phagos meaning "to devour." The notion that viruses could kill bacteria suggested the possibility of phage therapy — the application of viruses to treat human diseases caused by bacterial pathogens. Phage therapy was championed by d'Herelle and became a focus of scientific investigation and a subject of public discourse. Indeed, Dr. Arrowsmith, the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith, published in 1925, discovers a phage capable of killing the microbe that causes bubonic plague. It would seem that...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Princeton University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0691161542
• ISBN 13: 9780691161549
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 329
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Princeton University Press; https://press.princeton.edu/books; ; 7th Floor, New South Building; PRINCETON; NJ; 8544; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar