Leading microbiologist and HIV/AIDS researcher Dr. John M. Coffin presented a Mini Beatty lecture last Friday entitled Retrovirus Evolution. An American Cancer Society Research Professor and Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston, Coffin spoke for an hour on topics spanning the field of retrovirology.
Coffin's talk, organized by the department of microbiology and immunology, the McGill AIDS Centre and the Beatty Memorial Lecture Committee, aimed to showcase the physiology of retroviruses and how they infiltrate the body.
"You may be surprised to learn that humans descended from viruses," said Shan-Lu Liu, McGill assistant professor of virology and gene therapy, as she introduced Coffin. "Studying the effects of retroviruses on humans and other species can help us better understand the evolution of the virus-host association."
Retroviruses can be found in the family Retroviridae, which includes the leukemia and HIV viruses. They can only survive with a host, as they rely on an enzyme called reverse transcriptase to transcribe their genome from RNA into DNA. The DNA is then integrated into the host's genome with another enzyme called integrase; the virus then multiplies as a part of the cell's DNA.
Coffin explained that if a retrovirus happens to infect a human sperm cell or egg and the embryo survives, the retrovirus could declare its place in the blueprint of the human species. It would be passed from one generation to another. He pointed out that in many cases, these remnants often do not serve a purpose or cause harm and are thus labelled 'junk DNA'.
"Endogeneous viruses are what they're called after they've replicated viral genome into the germ line," Coffin explained. "These viruses comprise a good six to eight per cent of the human genome. There are more of them than genes-there exist more viruses in us, than there is us in us."
Coffin initiated the use of genomic analysis to study the biology of retroviruses, giving explanation to their genetic organization, mechanism of replication, recombination and transduction. His research has also built a foundation for theories concerning the retrovirus-host relationship.
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Andy Chung
posted 2/05/08 @ 1:47 AM EST
your best article yet!! i think its because its on a topic im into lol. no but for real, I can see why they bumped you up to first page. keep it up
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