Basic virology

Ideal for the student seeking a solid understanding of the basic principles in this rapidly developing field, this best-selling text offers a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of virology. Featuring an enhanced art program now in full-color, the new edition has been updated throughout. New edition incorporates additional reading suggestions, expanded review questions, chapter outlines and full-colour artwork Contains new chapters dealing with viruses and cancer, generation and use of recombinant viruses and virus-like particles, viral evolution, network biology and viruses, and animal models and transgenics, as well as a chapter devoted to HIV and AIDS Downloadable artwork, original animations and online resources are available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/wagner

Ideal for the student seeking a solid understanding of the basic principles in this rapidly developing field, this best-selling text offers a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of virology. Featuring an enhanced art program now in full-color, the new edition has been updated throughout, including cutting-edge information on emerging viruses of medical importance and expanded coverage of viral pathogenesis, viral immunology, retroviruses and HIV/AIDS. New chapters have been added dealing with HIV and AIDS, viruses and cancer, generation and use of recombinant viruses and virus-like particles, viral evolution, network biology and viruses, and animal models and transgenics.

The third edition is even more comprehensive and accessible, including chapter outlines, revised and expanded review questions, case studies, and cumulative end of section problems, which integrate topics covered in that section and challenge students to synthesize new material. Basic Virology is supported by an outstanding website - www.blackwellpublishing.com/wagner - including original animations, downloadable artwork, and online resources designed to provide both students and instructors with an enhanced understanding of the field.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Nancy D. Hanson, PhD(Creighton University)
Description:This book is well designed for undergraduate students interested in understanding basic virology. It does a good job of providing an understanding of other disciplines required to fully appreciate basic virology and is an important update to the first edition which appeared in 1999.
Purpose:The authors are both well known virologists who have an enormous amount of research and undergraduate teaching experience. The purpose of this book is to give the undergraduate student an appreciation for the complexity and disciplines required for the study of virology. The authors meet these objectives, which are critical for the training of future scientists and medical professionals. The generation of information in the field of virology is enormous, thus requiring frequent updates.
Audience:This book is written for undergraduate students who are planning a career in science either as research scientists or health professionals. The authors are well known authorities in the field of virology.
Features:The illustrations, along with an appendix including hard copy and Web-based references and a glossary of terms, make this book particularly appealing for teaching students. The book is very well organized and allows students to progress by learning general concepts first, followed by more complex and detailed concepts on individual groups of viruses. It is particularly nice that the authors make general statements suggesting the simplicity of a system but remind the student in the next sentence the actual complexity of the topic.
Assessment:This book offers an excellent forum for both students and instructors to examine the world of virology. I would not hesitate using this book in an upper level undergraduate class or as a foundation text coupled with current literature for a basic virology course for graduate students.

Introduction: the impact of viruses on our view of life An outline of virus replication and viral pathogenesis Virus disease in populations and individual animals Patterns of some viral diseases of humans Virus structure and classification The beginning and end of the virus replication cycle Host immune response to viral infection: the nature of the vertebrate immune response Strategies to protect against and combat viral infection Visualization and enumeration of virus particles Replicating and measuring biological activity of viruses Physical and chemical manipulation of the structural components of viruses Characterization of viral products expressed in the infected cell Viruses use cellular processes to express their genetic information Replication of positive-sense RNA viruses Replication strategies of RNA viruses requiring RNA-directed mRNA transcription as the first step in viral gene expression Replication strategies of small and medium-sized DNA viruses Replication of some nuclear-replicating eukaryotic DNA viruses with large genomes Replication of cytoplasmic DNA viruses and large bacteriophages Retroviruses: converting RNA to DNA HIV and related lentiviruses Hepadnaviruses: variations on the retrovirus theme The molecular genetics of viruses Molecular pathogenesis Viral bioinformatics and beyond Viruses and the future: problems and promises. Providing a solid introduction to the basic principles of virology, this title contains chapters dealing with viruses and cancer, generation and use of recombinant viruses and virus-like particles, viral evolution, network biology and viruses, and animal models and transgenics, and more