Retroviridae Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Retroviridae - Essay Example Based on the similarities in amino acid sequences in the reverse transcriptase proteins of retroviruses (Coombs, Medscape, the retroviruses can be classified into: alpharetroviruses, betaretroviruses, gammaretroviruses, deltaretroviruses, epsilonretroviruses, lentiviruses and spuma-viruses (Table-1). The alpharetroviruses, betaretroviruses, and gammaretroviruses are considered simple retroviruses; the deltaretroviruses, epsilonretroviruses, lentiviruses, and spuma-viruses are considered complex (Coombs, Medscape). Avian sarcoma and leukosis viral group, mammalian B-type viral group, murine leukemia-related viral group, human T-cell leukemia–bovine leukemia viral and D-type viral group were formerly known as oncogenic retroviruses (Coffin, NCBI). Retroviruses are further classified into simple and complex categories based on the organization of their genomes. There are 3 major coding domains which are common to all the retroviruses. These domains have information for virion proteins. The domains are known as gag, pol and env. Gag directs the synthesis of internal virion proteins that form the matrix, the capsid, and the nucleoprotein structures. Pol contains the information for the reverse transcriptase and integrase enzymes and env contains information for the synthesis of the surface and transmembrane components of the viral envelope protein. In addition to all these major coding domains, there is one smaller coding domain common to all retroviruses. It is called pro and it codes for the virion protease. Simple retroviruses are those which carry only this elementary information. All oncogenic members except the human T-cell leukemia virus–bovine leukemia virus (HTLV-BLV) genus are simple retroviruses. Complex retrov iruses code for additional regulatory non-virion proteins derived from multiple spliced messages. The additional coding domains include tat, rev, etc.

Patrick Lee and Robert P. George The Wrong of Abortion critically Essay

Patrick Lee and Robert P. George The Wrong of Abortion critically analyzing their argument. Clearly spell out how and why the premises lead to the conclusion - Essay Example That is true to a certain extent. When it comes to the fact that an unborn child is growing inside the mother, that does not mean she has the right to abort the pregnancy. It may be a fact that involuntary childbirth has caused deaths (Lee and George 2005). However, some people do not look at the fetus as a person. People forget, when it comes to abortion, that the unborn child and the mother are two separate entities. Thus, in all actuality, the child is only hitching a ride with mother for only a few months until it is ready to make its way into this world (Kidd 1999). The mother may have rights to be happy. But even our own government, which is full of hypocrites, wrote into our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and are endowed rights by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Kidd 1999). This proves that even the fetus that is being carried by the mother has the right to live since it was created by God. Furthermore, if a woman pregnant with child is killed by someone, that person is going to be charged with two murders, not one. The law even takes in account the unborn child and prosecutes for the untimely death of the child inside the mother’s womb as well as the mother herself (ChristiaNet). Some people would lead us to believe that the fetus is not a person until it has the ability to be sentient and think for itself. The problem I see in that statement refers to young newborn children. If you say yes that a fetus is not a person since it cannot think for itself, then you must think that a newborn is not a person either. Newborns do not have the ability to think for themselves either. However, we still consider them people. Biologically, how can a fetus not be considered a person? At six weeks of gestation the fetus begins to develop a heartbeat. Thus, to me this essentially shows us that the fetus is a person. Also, it has been proven that a