Talk:Feline Immunodeficiency virus

You provide a very comprehensive and interesting discussion of FIV. After reading it, though, I did have some questions. When was the genome of FIV sequenced? Are there any implications in new sequencing technologies today? The idea that FIV can mutate between species, however, is so intriguing! Again, when did all these discoveries occur? Is it work that is funded today? I think you can include all this information to make the topic more applicable to today's readers. Also, it would be cool if you could expand your conclusion a bit--find out what research is being done to apply these discoveries to the development of drugs that can affect all immunodeficiency viruses! -Maggie


General
Overall it’s very good and thorough. A few things could be explained in more detail- think as if someone was reading this who didn’t have a good background in molecular biology and genomics. I really like that you include information from a variety of species of cats, as opposed to just the domestic cat. There are a few typos- just some commas needed here and there. I suggest reading it outloud and seeing if the sentences make sense.

Introduction
Once the capsid has been uncoated the RNA is converted to double-stranded DNA through the reverse transcriptase.
-stick a comma in after “uncoated”
Picture caption- “This was a photo ever taken of the virus, by Michael Podell, at Ohio State University.” Not sure what you’re trying to say here- first photo ever taken?
“At first the viral genome is able to replicate slowly only creating a few virions and thus not directly affecting the host.”
-comma after “slowly”
“After sometime the host cell can then generate a large amount of virions, thus causing the host to show symptoms of immunodeficiency.”
-separate “sometime” into “some time”
“The genome of FIV reveals important viral proteins and thus potential vaccine targets, as well as showing how the virus evolved..”
-there are two periods at the end of the sentence

The genome of FIV
” Open reading frame A or orf A is induces host cell arrest at the second gap phase of the cell cylce [3]. Only gag and pol are the genes are in the primary viral genome and it is only after splicing that the other viral genes are expressed.”
-there are a few typos in these sentences

Genomic Variation of FIV
” These mutations are typically occur in genes other than the pol gene”
-typo
” This gene is highly conserved in all lentiviruses because it contains the gene for reverse transcriptase a protein unique to all retroviruses [4]”
-I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here.
” For example each species of cat may have different T-cell receptors and thus the virus would have to mutate to bind to the new T-cell receptors [9]”
-need a comma after ‘For example’
“The strains of FIV would also have to mutate to avoid each species conventional immune responses.”
-I’m confused by this sentence as well. Do you mean to say “avoid each species’ conventional immune response” (with the ‘ after species)?
“The genomic variation of each strain of FIV not only reveals how FIV is able to mutate to avoid different immune systems of feline species, but it also reveals the evolution of FIV throughout felines in particular the Felidae”
- the end of this sentence is confusing. Maybe you just need a comma. So, it would say “but also reveals the evolution of FIV throughout felines, in particular the Felidae” or maybe say “felines, particularly the Felidae”

Evolution of feline immunodeficiency virus
“FIV in Puma concolor have long branching revealing that the viral divergence occurred quite a long time ago [6]. FIV in Panthera leo has the most variation revealing that the virus probably began in Africa.”
-you need a comma before “revealing” in both of these sentences
“Some strains of FIV appear to be transmitted interspecies, however for this to occur serious obstacles must be overcome.”
-what kinds of serious obstacles? You may want to mention a few. I see you mention them later, but they should be introduced when you first mention these issues or you need to state that they will be discussed later.
“Also lions incorporate biting and fighting in their everyday lifestyle, for example male lions are constantly taking over new prides.”
-this sentence is confusing
” these stains are highly divergent from the other FlV-Pco B.”
-should be strains instead of stains
” It is believed that FIV-Pco was first present in South American Puma concolor, which then re-colonized North America.”
-need to italicize Puma concolor
” However FIV-Pco has two distinct strains one that is just found in North America and one strain that is found in North, Central and South America.”
-confusing/awkward sentence… maybe it just needs a colon in between strains and one?

References
-link the references to the site- use the example website to see the format of how to link something directly

Kim Miller's comments:
-I think the scanning electron micrograph picture caption has a typo.
- In the "evolution of feline immunoficiency virus" section, the sentence "FIV-Fce to be greatly divergent from all other strains of FIV" doesn't make sense
-it is really interesting that FIV is host-specific and makes small mutations to evolve for each species of cat it infects. I did not know that.
-overall, this is a really interesting topic. I've heard of FIV, but I've always wanted to know more about the virus. I really liked how your conclusion linked to HIV and implications for research. Great job!

Rex's Comments

I'm pretty impressed with your page overall, mostly because I never really consider animal infections when discussing these types of widespread diseases. In lieu of that I thought of a couple of things that would improve your poster and probably be a bit more informative (at least from a public health point of view). In particular, do we know anything about whether or not feral, or feralized domestic cats show an increased infection rate compared to normal housecats? Along that same pattern of thinking, is there a significant amount of already diseased housecats in the U.S? From the genetics point of view, do we know anything about the evolution of this particular disease or any proposed lineages. The similarity of FIV to both HIV and other primate immune viruses is uncanny especially in morphology and biochemistry. If there is any information out there along these lines please include it.

Sarah C's Comments

I found this page extremely interesting and was drawn to it initially because I am very unfamiliar with animal diseases. This was especially interesting because of its relevance to the human epidemic, HIV. I really liked how you incorporated some comparison between the two diseases, but it might be nice to see this in a little more depth because I think this is a very relevant topic to public health. Because HIV initially was contracted from animals, what could be the implications for humans of this desease. I also found it interesting that each strain of FIV is species specific, and I really liked the figure comparing the genetic variation from FIV-Ple and FIV-Oma. This showed the genetics side of the disease from an evolutionary standpoint which was nice. A few minor typos I noticed:
The first caption reads "This was a photo ever taken of the virus." Is this supposed to be, "This was the first photo ever taken of the virus?" Also, in the second sentence in the second to last paragraph before the conclusion, there is a fragmented sentence that reads, "FIV-Fce to be greatly divergent from all other strains of FIV." Lastly, in the second paragraph where I think you are comparing FIV and HIV you repeat FIV twice. Overall, extremely interesting and fun to read!!