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It is almost twenty years since the first DNA tumor virus meeting was held at Cold Spring Harbor. At this meeting studies on three tumor viruses were discussed: the papovaviruses, the adenoviruses and the herpesviruses. The present series Developments in Molecular Virology chose to reverse this sequence by first publishing books on the herpesviruses, followed by adenoviruses, and only now the papo- vaviruses. All the DNA tumor viruses gained their original reputation by serving as model systems in animal cells for studying gene expression and gene regulation, but SV40 and polyoma have been the jewel in the crown in these studies, as A phage was for the study of prokaryotes. SV40 was the first DNA tumor virus to be completely sequenced that enabled the definition of the cis controlling elements in DNA replication and transcription. I am continuously fascinated by the organization of the SV40 and polyoma genomes. Although they contain about 5000 bp that encode for only 6 to 7 proteins, the mechanisms which regulated their gene expression are varied and include almost any other type of gene regulation found today to regulate eukaryotic genes. Just to mention two: (i) the early promoter is a classical promoter that contains the TAT A, CAAT and enhancer elements, while the late promoter is devoid of these elements, and (ii) the mRNA can be structurally and functionally monocistronic or dicistronic. This hints at the versatility in the control of gene expression at the transcriptional and translational levels.
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Robert Mann
reviewed Molecular Aspects of Papovaviruses on March 07, 2015
Molecular Aspects of Papovaviruses
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The good:
- bold theorizing! But testable and falsifiable, so it has more merit than technically savvy sci-fi. (still, all it changes is the mechanism. It doesn't address the selection pressures, why intelligence, or many of the objections he raises to a darwinian account)
- many important and fascinating experiments are described
- even if you don't buy his theory you will learn a lot of interesting facts about genetics and epigenetics, the technical level is high and, especially in the last couple of parts, very satisfying.
- Fills a niche, not a lot of interesting material on the subject that's available to the general reader.
The bad:
- didn't make it clear to me why his evolutionary stories were more plausible and useful than all the ones he dismisses (even tho I find his exercises in making alternate accounts pedagogically useful)
- Apparently the discovery of fire and heat-preparation of food was not an event worth mentioning, even tho this is interpreted as causing the shortening of our intestines which lead to much better energy utilization (the intestines need a lot of energy to do their work), freeing up resources for a power-hungry organ like the brain
- although he did make a point of the importance of brain plasticity, he never really addresses the long developmental time of human children and the extent of dendritic pruning that takes place during this period. Having a longer window for critical and sensitive periods sounds like an important factor in how much culture can change an organism.
- his discussion of how traits like intelligence or musicality (or indeed a brain region specific to written language) was useless to our pre-historic forefathers wasn't entirely convincing (what good is a cubic-root to a caveman? I'm not sure, but pattern recognition and being able to think and manipulate abstractions in some capacity sounds like it could be useful? It does sound like it's a subject that has been covered by others, so I should perhaps not hold it against him for not dedicating more time to the subject). (hide spoiler)]
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