Insect herbivores and the drivers of plant speciation









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Coming back with a 3-Min competition








Time traveling with bird malaria parasites in the West Indies islands

by Letícia Soares


Herpes viruses got a friend: Helminth parasites can promote the reactivation of latent viral infections


The helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus can re-activate latent herpes viruses through the modulation of transcriptior factors and inhibition of anti-viral cytokines. Photograph by Constance Finney.

The helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus can re-activate latent herpes viruses through the modulation of transcriptor factors and inhibition of anti-viral cytokines. Photograph by Constance Finney.

We all know at least one person who has exhibited the signs of an infection by herpes viruses, as well as their complaints about how this inconvenient infection might re-occur after long dormant periods. In fact, more than 90% of the human population is accounted to latently carry viruses of the herpes family. Although most research on disease mechanisms and host immunity have focused on one-host-one-parasite systems, most vertebrates are known to carry a vast community of parasites, that can behave much like herpes viruses do, alternating between latent and active phases. There is evidence that parasites can interact when in co-infection, however little is known about the precise mechanisms through which these organisms deal with each other when exploring a common host.

In a study published this month in the Science magazine, researchers investigate how helminth parasites influence the end of the latency stages of herpes viruses in murine rodents. The researchers experimentally infect rodents with a herpes-like virus modified to express luciferase – a bioluminescent enzyme that can be used to track the viral replication inside the host. Then, they challenged the same rodents with infections of two different types of helminths, Heligmosomoides polygyrus and Schistosomiasis mansoni, and found out that both parasites promote viral reactivation. Interestingly, the helminths elicit viral ‘awakening’ through a cascade of cell-mediate immunity that starts with the activation of lymphocytes Th2. Once activated by helmintic infections, Th2 cells produce IL-4, which is the crucial factor on the re-activation of herpes viruses. The exit from the latency state is dependent on the expression of one viral gene (gene50), and such expression relies on the bond of a single signaling molecule to gene50. The misfortune of the host and the beauty of co-evolution come from the fact that IL-4, which synthesis is a product of the helminth presence, is the the activator of this one signaling molecule that promotes the expression of the gene necessary for the ‘awakening’ of the herpes virus. Also, IL-4 not only promotes viral gene expression, but also blocks the activity of anti-viral cytokines. Hence, the viruses only exit the latent state when the host immune system provides an ideal medium for their proliferation, by both stimulating viral re-activation and inhibiting anti-viral immunity – all thanks to helminths parasites. What a fine example of co-evolution and organismal adaptation! 

How helminths go viral: Helminth infection activates TH2 cells to release IL-4 and IL-13, both of which ligate the IL-4 receptor (IL-4R) on M2 macrophages. In M2 macrophages harboring latent herpesvirus, the IL-4R activates host cell STAT6, which then acts directly on the key viral gene that initiates viral replication. Figure and caption adapted from Maizels and Gause 2014.


Reese et al, 2014. Helminth infection reactivates latent γ-herpesvirus via cytokine competition at a viral promoter. Science Vol. 345 no. 6196 pp. 573-577.

How blogs/blogging can add to your career

Last year, Inger Mewburn  & Pat Thomson published a paper (Studies in Higher Education 2013, DOI:10.1080/03075079.2013.835624) on a relatively small-scale research to analyze what academics blog about and why. Blogging has become increasingly common over the last few years, especially among young researchers, and this paper introduced a good summary of the current reasons why. According to their research based on 100 academic blogs “academics most commonly write about academic work conditions and policy contexts, share information and provide advice”. I read their paper when I was on the verge of deciding whether to go ahead and start writing a blog, and decided to do some searching of my own about what it is that academics blog about and if it was worth doing it. So, here is what I found.

Most of what I looked for was related to biology, obviously, because that is what I do. There are some pretty good ones out there, and for me, the best I get from them is information on topics that are a little outside of my scope and therefore would normally not read anywhere else. That is, it is a great way of being on the loop about other research topics that are not relevant to your own exactly, but that are fun to know about! Just a few of my favorite ones, in case you’re interested: The Molecular Ecologist, Dynamic EcologyEEB and Flow, and The Loom. For me, there is nothing like a Sunday morning browsing through the lire app where all my feeds are combined.

There are people who really go all in and you can find inspiring stories out there of graduate students that started blogging about their own research and got so involved with it, they are developing part of their carriers though it. Jeremy Yoder, for example, tells the story of when he began blogging about things he found interesting while still in grad school and nowadays is the manager for the aforementioned blog, the Molecular Ecologist.

But, really, why do most academics blog? Does it help with readership of the articles that are being blogged about? I found that the answer to that seems to be yes, at least according to this experiment done by Melissa Terras with her own articles, where she introduces this interesting formula: If (social media interaction is often) then (open access + social media = increased downloads). However, Thompson and Mewburn suggest that what really gets this world spinning is the global meeting place it provides. It is not always about outreach. Research now has the potential to be collaborative in ways never achieved before, and blogging appears to play a significant role in this. There is a lot of discussion going on (yes, in the form of blogging, but also in journals like this one) about how social media is changing the way we do science. My personal opinion is that the change has indeed started, if not entirely revolutionizing yet, certainly a major force to be aware of. Social media is how a lot of us communicate, where we look for things that interest us.

Interested? Now, there are different scales to this. If you’re looking for a place to start, there are manuals on how to start microblogging through Twitter (“How to start tweeting”), but if you’re feeling brave, check out this A to Z guide on social media for academia. All in all, social media can certainly open up new forms of communication and dissemination.

Poster describing the results of a study examining Twitter use among a sample of 8,826 academics from 5 universities. Authors Jason Priem, Kaitlin Costello and Tyler Dzuba

Poster describing the results of a study examining Twitter use among a sample of 8,826 academics from 5 universities. Authors Jason Priem, Kaitlin Costello and Tyler Dzuba. From figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.104629 .