How the koala retrovirus genome evolved
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 15:06
in Biology & Nature
Retroviruses invaded the genome of koalas with strongly pathological effects: the viruses weaken the immune defense and threaten the viability of the already reduced koala population. Scientists have now applied the technique of hybridization capture to analyze the entire genome of koala retroviruses and used museum samples to monitor its variation across 130 years.