TWiV 222: Jumpin’ Jack Flash, it’s a GAS GAS GAS

March 3, 2013

cyclic GAMP Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The complete TWiV team discusses the amazing finding that cyclic GMP-AMP synthase is a cytosolic innate immune DNA sensor.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 222 (70 MB .mp3, 97 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

Zhijian J. Chen (Wikipedia)
Sensing the dark side of DNA (Science)
cGAMP is an endogenous second messenger (Science)
cGAMP synthase is a DNA sensor (Science)
Pore-forming toxin (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiV 222

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Graphene batteries
Alan – How do we get cures? (YouTube)
Rich – Explosive breach of Condit Dam (Vimeo)
Vincent – 10 things you can do to support open access (Tree of Life)

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark - The real story of Stuxnet
John – D-connector virus

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Tweet

Tagged as: cGAMP, cGAMP synthase, cyclic GAMP, DNA sensor, innate immune response, second messenger, viral, virology, virus

Dorian McILROY

Thanks for a great discussion of two fantastic papers. I want to comment on a couple of points.

Firstly, in response to a listener question about whether there are viruses that infect mitochondria or chloroplasts, maybe this doesn’t count, but there is a family of plant viroids (infectious agents that have a small circular RNA genome, but no protein) that replicate in the chloroplasts. They are the Avsunviroidae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avsunviroidae).

Secondly, here is a link to a Ben Goldacre TED talk where he explains why the All Trials campaign is necessary.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_prescribe.html