possible reservoir for Ebola/Marburg

[Giovanni Maga]

 mremingt at UMABNET.AB.UMD.EDU ("Mary P. Remington") writes:
> 
> >Perhaps the RNA would be lost but, the proviral DNA (assuming Ebola 
> >behaves as for instance other Lentiviruses) could persist and if 
> >incorporated into a cell or wound become infectious.  
> 
> 
Ebola is not a Lentivirus, it's not even a retrovirus. It's a a Filovirus
which belongs to the riboviridae with minus strand genome group. The
genomic RNA of Ebola is ss negative, that is, it is not translated. This
means that it is not infective. The virus, infact, needs to carry on its
RNA dependent/RNA polymerase in order to transcribe its (-)RNA into a
(+)one. The (+)RNA functions in part as mRNA for protein synthesis and in
part as template for the production of (-)genomic RNA which is packed into
virions. There are no DNA intermediates and all the process is in the
cytoplasm. Thus, to be infectious an Ebola RNA must derive from the (+)RNA
strand which is only a transient, strictly intracellular intermediate of
the viral replication. Hard to believe, isn't it? 
maga at vetbio.unizh.ch