"Does the axis and orbit of the Earth effect the Earths climate, can this be another contribution to global warming? "
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Seminar Detail
A Changing View of Viruses in the Evolution and Ecology of Life
Presenter: Mark Young (Montana State University)
October 26, 2009 11:00 AM Pacific
Viruses are the most abundant life-like entities on the planet. Studies over the past twenty years by environmental virologists have significantly changed our view of the role of viruses in the biosphere. It is becoming increasingly likely that viruses or virus-like entities are major players in earth's early life and in the present day ecology and evolution of life.
We are interested in the isolation and molecular characterization of archaeal viruses from high temperature environments. High temperature (>80C) acidic environments (pH<3.0) have proven to be a rich source of viruses replicating in crenarchaeal hosts (viruses replicating in host from the domain Archaea). We have isolated and characterized a number of these unusual viruses. Using both culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches, a broad diversity of virus particle morphologies and genome compositions have been detected. Like most crenarchaeal viruses isolated to date, the viral open reading frames (ORFs) have little to no similarity to proteins in the public databases. However, despite this lack of homology, these viruses have particle structures reminiscent of viruses of Eukarya and Bacteria, suggesting an evolutionary relationship between viruses from all domains of life.Participation Instructions
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Click here to view Online RecordingDecember 21, 2007
The Director’s Seminar series features talks from scientists who are invited by the NAI Director to present their research results to the community. A primary goal of the seminars is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration across NAI teams and within the astrobiology community at large.
Team Overview Seminars describe the work of the fourteen NAI teams and NAI Central. They offer an opportunity to find out more about the science, E/PO and other activities being performed by the NAI teams and the NAI Central office.
The Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) provides an opportunity for graduate students to present their research results and to meet as a student community for networking and mutual support.
The University of Washington seminar series is hosted by the NAI Virtual Planetary Lab (VPL) team from the UW campus in Seattle.
