Journal of virology
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Journal of virology · Aug 2017
Gender Parity Trends for Invited Speakers at Four Prominent Virology Conference Series.
Scientific conferences are most beneficial to participants when they showcase significant new experimental developments, accurately summarize the current state of the field, and provide strong opportunities for collaborative networking. A top-notch slate of invited speakers, assembled by conference organizers or committees, is key to achieving these goals. The perceived underrepresentation of female speakers at prominent scientific meetings is currently a popular topic for discussion, but one that often lacks supportive data. ⋯ Good science proceeds otherwise. The underrepresentation of women as invited speakers at international scientific conferences exemplifies a present-day discussion topic usually occurring without facts to support or refute the arguments. We now provide records profiling four prominent virology conferences over the years 1982 to 2017 with the intention that the trends and accompanying analyses of the gender parity of invited speakers may allow the ongoing discussions to be informed.
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Journal of virology · Aug 2017
Mapping of Transcription Termination within the S Segment of SFTS Phlebovirus Facilitated Generation of NSs Deletant Viruses.
SFTS phlebovirus (SFTSV) is an emerging tick-borne bunyavirus that was first reported in China in 2009. Here we report the generation of a recombinant SFTSV (rHB29NSsKO) that cannot express the viral nonstructural protein (NSs) upon infection of cells in culture. We show that rHB29NSsKO replication kinetics are greater in interferon (IFN)-incompetent cells and that the virus is unable to suppress IFN induced in response to viral replication. ⋯ Here we report the generation of several recombinant SFTS viruses that cannot express the NSs protein or have the NSs open reading frame replaced with a reporter gene. These viruses cannot antagonize the mammalian interferon (IFN) response mounted to virus infection. The generation of NSs-lacking viruses was achieved by mapping the transcriptional termination of two S-segment-derived subgenomic mRNAs, which revealed that transcription termination occurs upstream of a 5'-GCCAGCC-3' motif present in the virus genomic S RNA.