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Several discoveries are noteworthy for allowing us to probe the
recesses of the virus infected cell and to search for cryptic viral
genomes which might provide clues in our studies of cancer etiology
or developmental biology. One of the most notable was the dis
covery of reverse transcriptase. This marked a momentous occasion
in the history of molecular biology. Not only did it provide
insight into the mechanism of persistence of retroviruses but it
also provided us with an enzyme that could synthesize a DNA copy of
any RNA. This DNA copy could then be used as a hybridization
reagent to search for both complementary DNA and viral-specific
RNA. Thus one could follow the course of any viral infection or
probe in tumor cells for hidden viral genomes. Second, a great deal
of credit must be given to the geneticists who isolated the various
deletion mutants in the 'avian retrovirus system and thus provided
us with the frrst means of isolating gene-spe cific probes.
Finally, the laboratories which have mapped the genome have
provided us with the framework in which to ask very specific
questions with our gene-specific probes. Recently, numerous
excellent reviews concerning various aspects of the retroviruses
have appeared. In this review I shall not even attempt to present a
comprehensive review of retroviruses."
Many of the fundamental concepts of animal virology originated from
the study of the variola-cowpox-vaccinia virus system with vaccinia
virus serving as the type species (Fen- nerand Burnet 1957; Burnet
1959; Fenner 1976a, b). The importance of the Poxviridae(Fen- ner
1979) for the study of viruses as biologic entities and in defIning
the events which occur in virus-infected cells are exemplifIed by
investigations which: (a) described the epidemiology of a virus
disease in an animal population (Fenner1949, 1959b); (b) em- ployed
electron microscopy to study virion structure (Peters 1956,
Nagington and Home 1962, Dales and Siminovitch 1961) and to derme
the morphologic stages of virion develop- ment in infected cells
(Morgan et al. 1954, Dales 1963); (c) dermed and elaborated on the
mechanism of nongenetic reactivation for an animal virus (Joklik et
al. 1960a, Fenner and Woodroofe 1960, Hanafusa 1960); (d) described
the intracellular uncoating of a viral genome (Joklik 1964a, b);
(e) studied the antigenic structure and complexity of poxvirions
(Loh and Riggs 1961, Woodroofe and Fenner 1962, Appleyard et al.
1964, Appleyard and Westwood 1964); (1) described the use of
chemotherapy to treat viral infec- tions (Bauer et al. 1963); (g)
fIrst demonstrated the presence of virion-coded enzymes
encapsulated within virions (Kates and McAuslan 1967, Munyon et al.
1967); and (h) established the H -2 restriction of cytotoxic T-cell
killing of virus-infected cells in the murine system (Doherty et
al. 1976).
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