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Institute staff join community wildlife group to help restore local wetland area

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it and the Fox Corner Community Wildlife Association (FCCWA) were very grateful to the Institute staff who volunteered recently to clear the invasive plant threatening this greatly valued community wetland area. In yet another…

Veronica and Daisy’s Soapbox Science success!

Dr Veronica Fowler’s presentation for Soapbox Science 2016 proved a hit with the crowds on London’s Southbank with help from her PhD students - and Daisy the cow! Dozens of fascinated people gathered round Veronica’s Soapbox during the event and some brave volunteers donned…

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Elevation of CpG frequencies in influenza A genome attenuates pathogenicity but enhances host response to infection

Previously, we demonstrated that frequencies of CpG and UpA dinucleotides profoundly influence the replication ability of echovirus 7 (Tulloch et al., 2014). Here, we show that that influenza A virus (IAV) with maximised frequencies of these dinucleotides in segment 5 showed…

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Predicted optimum ambient temperatures for broiler chickens to dissipate metabolic heat do not affect performance or improve breast muscle quality

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that muscle damage in fast-growing broiler chickens is associated with an ambient temperature that does not permit the birds to lose metabolic heat resulting in physiological heat stress and a reduction in meat quality.The…

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Quantitative analysis of microRNAs in vaccinia virus infection reveals diversity in their susceptibility to modification and suppression

Vaccinia virus (VACV) is a large cytoplasmic DNA virus that causes dramatic alterations to many cellular pathways including microRNA biogenesis. The virus encodes a poly(A) polymerase which was previously shown to add poly(A) tails to the 3' end of cellular miRNAs, resulting…

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RAB1A promotes Vaccinia virus replication by facilitating the production of intracellular enveloped virions

Vaccinia virus (VACV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus with a complex cytoplasmic replication cycle that exploits numerous cellular proteins. This work characterises the role of a proviral cellular protein, the small GTPase RAB1A, in VACV replication. Using siRNA, we…

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High prevalence and diversity of bovine astroviruses in the faeces of healthy and diarrhoeic calves in South West Scotland

Astroviruses (AstV) are single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses and one of the major causes of infant diarrhoea worldwide. Diarrhoea is a common and important cause of morbidity and mortality in calves; therefore, we investigated whether the presence of AstV is…

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A loss of function analysis of host factors influencing vaccinia virus replication by RNA interference

Vaccinia virus (VACV) is a large, cytoplasmic, double-stranded DNA virus that requires complex interactions with host proteins in order to replicate. To explore these interactions a functional high throughput small interfering RNA (siRNA) screen targeting 6719 druggable…

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TRAF2 facilitates vaccinia virus replication by promoting rapid virus entry

Tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) is a pivotal intracellular mediator of signaling pathways downstream of TNFR1 and -2 with known pro-and antiviral effects. We investigated its role in the replication of the prototype poxvirus vaccinia virus…

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Canine distemper imported into the UK