Viruses, including those responsible for AIDS, the common cold and hepatitis, share functional traits that suggest their evolution from a common ancestor, according to recent findings by UW-Madison scientists.
The finding, published in the journal Molecular Cell, links large groups of viruses previously thought to be evolutionarily and functionally distinct.
UW-Madison Professor Paul Ahlquist, author of the study, said the discovery added to an understanding of viruses, which may be useful for their control.
\If you know the machinery, you know where to throw the wrench to mess it up,"" Alquist said.
Ahlquist worked with a team of Madison scientists, all part of the UW-Madison Institute for Molecular Virology.
The team found key features of replication to be parallel, involving the mechanisms by which viruses replicate their genetic information after they seize the cells of the host they infect and a compartment in which the messenger RNA, the viral genetic template, is reserved and copied.
