🚀 go-pugleaf

Keith Robinson asked 
        
>Would someone be kind enough to post a "character sketch"
>of the Hanta virus, the one apparently responsible for a number of
>deaths in the American Southwest?  Genome type, basic construction,
>relatives, etc?

 >      Also, what is the standard text(s) for this sort of 
>information? (i.e. the virological equivalent of Bergey's Manual).

Briefly:

The Hantaan virus group belong to the Bunyaviridae family. General
characteristics of this group are :

1. The viruses are enveloped, spherical, and approx. 90-100 nm in diameter.
2. Particles contain three internal nucleocapsids, each containing a unique
single-stranded genomic RNA (L, M, S RNAs).
3. There is a virion-associated RNA polymerase.
4. The three RNA species have a common consensus 3� end sequence AUCAUCAUCUG.
5. Most isolates of Hantaan and Hantaan-like viruses are from rodent species
(eg. voles, rats, field mice).
6. Diseases associated with this group of viruses - Korean hemorrhagic fever,
epidemic hemorrhagic fever, and nephropathia epidemica.

The above information from my equivalent of Bergey�s  - Fundamental Virology,
Bernard Fields and David Knipe, Chief Editors. Raven Press, 1986.

There is a recent two volume set of Virology (2nd Edition, 1990), we call them
�the Red Books�, which includes more information on the pathobiology of the
viral infections than the Fundamental Virology book.

Hope to see some of you at ICV'93 in Glasgow.

Cheers from the Krazy Kraut Kanuck,

Karl Fischer
Department of Medical Microbiology 
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
e-mail :    tyr-2@bones.biochem.ualberta.ca
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	�Control? I needed a control?� - Most often heard statement from summer
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