Modulation of Host Gene Expression and Innate Immunity by Viruses

Abstract

Viruses characteristically infect host cells directly and have tremendously rapid replicative capacity. For these reasons, an organism’s earliest defenses against viruses are essential for host survival. These responses are referred to as innate and represent the entire repertoire of immunity in phylogenetically less-complex organisms. Innate responses are capable of participating in defense quickly and without the need for rearranging germline DNA to create specificity. Modulation of Host Gene Expression and Innate Immunity by Viruses presents a state-of-the art dissection of these defense mechanisms as well as strategies that viruses have developed to evade them. Furthermore, influences that viruses have upon host gene expression favoring either the host or the virus are also recounted in the context of innate immunity.