Studies In Viral Ecology: Two Volume Set

In this detailed 2-volume set for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and professionals, Hurst (biology and music, Xavier U., and engineering, U. del Valle, Colombia) explains the ecology of viruses by examining their interaction with microbe and plant hosts, including the types of transmission cycles that viruses have evolved encompassing principal and alternate hosts, vehicles, and vectoring species. In the first volume, Studies in Viral Ecology: Microbial and Botanical Host Systems, the 12 chapters define viral ecology and the basic biology of viruses, viral taxonomy, and morphology, replication, assembly, and evolutionary ecology, then viruses with microbial and plant hosting species, including bacteriophage and viral ecology as viewed through nucleic acid sequence data; viruses of cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, and seaweeds; the ecology and evolution of fungal, prion, and plant viruses, including geminiviruses; and viroids and viroid diseases of plants. Including the four introductory chapters from the first volume, the 14 chapters of the second, Studies in Viral Ecology: Animal Host Systems, address coral, fish, insect, terrestrial mammal, and cetacean viruses; those infecting marine mollusks; the viral ecology of aquatic crustaceans, avian viruses, and ectothermic vertebrates; and the relationship between humans, their viruses, and prions. Contributors work in biology, virology, biotechnology, and other areas in the US and Europe. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Professor Hurst is an affiliated faculty member at Xavier University and holds a life appointment as Visiting Professor at Universidad del Valle in Columbia. He has authored several books on viruses and viral ecology and has been a leader in defining the field of Viral Ecology.