History of virology
The history of virology – the scientific study of
The subsequent discovery and partial characterization of
Pioneers
Despite his other successes, Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) was unable to find a causative agent for rabies and speculated about a pathogen too small to be detected using a microscope.[1] In 1884, the French microbiologist Charles Chamberland (1851–1931) invented a filter – known today as the Chamberland filter – that had pores smaller than bacteria. Thus, he could pass a solution containing bacteria through the filter and completely remove them from the solution.[2]
In 1876,
In 1898, the Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck (1851–1931), a microbiology teacher at the Agricultural School in Wageningen repeated experiments by Adolf Mayer and became convinced that filtrate contained a new form of infectious agent.[4] He observed that the agent multiplied only in cells that were dividing and he called it a contagium vivum fluidum (soluble living germ) and re-introduced the word virus.[3] Beijerinck maintained that viruses were liquid in nature, a theory later discredited by the American biochemist and virologist Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904–1971), who proved that they were in fact, particles.[3] In the same year, 1898, Friedrich Loeffler (1852–1915) and Paul Frosch (1860–1928) passed the first animal virus through a similar filter and discovered the cause of foot-and-mouth disease.[5]
The first human virus to be identified was the
By 1928 enough was known about viruses to enable the publication of Filterable Viruses, a collection of essays covering all known viruses edited by Thomas Milton Rivers (1888–1962). Rivers, a survivor of typhoid fever contracted at the age of twelve, went on to have a distinguished career in virology. In 1926, he was invited to speak at a meeting organised by the Society of American Bacteriology where he said for the first time, "Viruses appear to be obligate parasites in the sense that their reproduction is dependent on living cells."[11]
The notion that viruses were particles was not considered unnatural and fitted in nicely with the
In 1935, Wendell Stanley examined the tobacco mosaic virus and found it was mostly made of protein.
In Pasteur's day, and for many years after his death, the word "virus" was used to describe any cause of infectious disease. Many bacteriologists soon discovered the cause of numerous infections. However, some infections remained, many of them horrendous, for which no bacterial cause could be found. These agents were invisible and could only be grown in living animals. The discovery of viruses paved the way to understanding these mysterious infections. And, although Koch's postulates could not be fulfilled for many of these infections, this did not stop the pioneer virologists from looking for viruses in infections for which no other cause could be found.[19]
Bacteriophages
Discovery
1920–1940: Early research
D'Herelle travelled widely to promote the use of bacteriophages in the treatment of bacterial infections. In 1928, he became professor of biology at
Modern era
Knowledge of bacteriophages increased in the 1940s following the formation of the Phage Group by scientists throughout the US. Among the members were Max Delbrück (1906–1981) who founded a course on bacteriophages at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.[26] Other key members of the Phage Group included Salvador Luria (1912–1991) and Alfred Hershey (1908–1997). During the 1950s, Hershey and Chase made important discoveries on the replication of DNA during their studies on a bacteriophage called T2. Together with Delbruck they were jointly awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses".[31] Since then, the study of bacteriophages has provided insights into the switching on and off of genes, and a useful mechanism for introducing foreign genes into bacteria and many other fundamental mechanisms of molecular biology.[32]
Plant viruses
In 1882, Adolf Mayer (1843–1942) described a condition of tobacco plants, which he called "mosaic disease" ("mozaïkziekte"). The diseased plants had variegated leaves that were mottled.[33] He excluded the possibility of a fungal infection and could not detect any bacterium and speculated that a "soluble, enzyme-like infectious principle was involved".[34] He did not pursue his idea any further, and it was the filtration experiments of Ivanovsky and Beijerinck that suggested the cause was a previously unrecognised infectious agent. After tobacco mosaic was recognized as a virus disease, virus infections of many other plants were discovered.[34]
The importance of tobacco mosaic virus in the history of viruses cannot be overstated. It was the first virus to be discovered, and the first to be
By 1935, many plant diseases were thought to be caused by viruses. In 1922,
In 1970, the Russian plant virologist Joseph Atabekov discovered that many plant viruses only infect a single species of host plant.[37] The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses now recognises over 900 plant viruses.[40]
20th century
By the end of the 19th century, viruses were defined in terms of their infectivity, their ability to be filtered, and their requirement for living hosts. Up until this time, viruses had only been grown in plants and animals, but in 1906, Ross Granville Harrison (1870–1959) invented a method for growing tissue in lymph,[41] and, in 1913, E Steinhardt, C Israeli, and RA Lambert used this method to grow vaccinia virus in fragments of guinea pig corneal tissue.[42] In 1928, HB and MC Maitland grew vaccinia virus in suspensions of minced hens' kidneys.[43] Their method was not widely adopted until the 1950s, when poliovirus was grown on a large scale for vaccine production.[44] In 1941–42, George Hirst (1909–94) developed assays based on haemagglutination to quantify a wide range of viruses as well as virus-specific antibodies in serum.[45][46]
Influenza
Although the
Poliomyelitis
In 1949,
Epstein–Barr virus
Late 20th and early 21st century
The second half of the 20th century was the golden age of virus discovery and most of the 2,000 recognised species of animal, plant, and bacterial viruses were discovered during these years. New viruses and strains of viruses were discovered in every decade of the second half of the 20th century. These discoveries have continued in the 21st century as new viral diseases such as
Year | Virus | References |
---|---|---|
1908 | poliovirus | [75] |
1911 | Rous sarcoma virus | [76] |
1915 | bacteriophage of staphylococci | [20] |
1917 | bacteriophage of shigellae | [20] |
1918 | bacteriophage of salmonellae | [22] |
1927 | yellow fever virus | [77] |
1930 | western equine encephalitis virus | [78] |
1933 | eastern equine encephalitis virus
|
[78] |
1934 | mumps virus | [79] |
1935 | Japanese encephalitis virus | [80] |
1943 | Dengue virus
|
[81] |
1949 | enteroviruses | [82] |
1952 | Varicella zoster virus | [63] |
1953 | adenovirus
|
[83] |
1954 | measles virus
|
[65] |
1956 | paramyxoviruses, rhinovirus | [64][66] |
1958 | monkeypox
|
[84] |
1962 | rubella virus | [85] |
1963 | hepatitis B virus | [86] |
1964 | Epstein–Barr virus | [87] |
1965 | retroviruses | [88] |
1966 | Lassa fever virus | [89] |
1967 | Marburg virus | [90] |
1972 | norovirus | [91] |
1973 | hepatitis A virus
|
[92][93] |
1975 | parvovirus B19 | [94] |
1976 | Ebola virus | [95] |
1980 | human T-lymphotropic virus 1 | [96] |
1982 | human T-lymphotropic virus 2 | [96] |
1983 | HIV | [97] |
1986 | human herpesvirus 6 | [98] |
1989 | hepatitis C virus | [99] |
1990 | Human herpesvirus 7
|
[100] |
1993 | hantavirus | [101] |
1994 | henipavirus | [102] |
1997 | Anelloviridae | [103] |
See also
- List of viruses
References
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