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The viruses of the family Rhabdoviridae have an exceedingly broad
host range and are widely distributed throughout the animal and
plant king doms. Animal rhabdoviruses infect and often cause
disease in insects, fish, and mammals, including man. The prototype
rhabdovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus VSV), has been extensively
studied and provides perhaps the best model system for studying
negative-strand viruses. The popularity of VSV as a model system is
to a considerable extent due to its relative simplicity and to its
rapid growth, generally to high titer, in many cell types ranging
from yeast to human. The nucleocapsids of these viruses also carry
transcriptional and replicative functions that are expressed in
cell-free systems. The first RNA-dependent RNA poly merase was
described in VSV and its G protein provided an early model system
for studying the synthesis, processing, and membrane insertion of
mammalian glycoproteins. VSV is also highly cytopathogenic and has
been studied quite extensively for its capacity to kill cells and
to shut off cellular macromolecular synthesis. Even earlier, VSV
was discovered to be highly susceptible to the action of
interferons and has served ever since as a means for quantitating
the activity of interferons. To my way of thinking, the spark that
ignited the explosion of re search in this field was struck at the
First International Colloquium on Rhabdoviruses, attended by 30 or
so participants in Roscoff, France, in June 1972."
The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of
the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science,
having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming
and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively
few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the
intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics,
biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and
spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information
explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these
events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000
pages in a total of about 18 volumes, represents a commitment by a
large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and
expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of
which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a
wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in
perspective, and to develop an invalua ble reference and sourcebook
for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed
as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also
provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated
concepts.
The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of
the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science,
having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming
and numbering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively
few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the
intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics,
bio chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and
spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information
explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these
events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000
pages in a total of 19 volumes, represents a commitment by a large
group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate
on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now
amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide
literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in
perspective, and to develop an invaluable reference and sourcebook
for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed
as a continuum that can be entered any where, but which also
provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated
concepts."
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