"Ebola Reston"???

[Giovanni Maga]

In article <4lbao6$2hs at pulm1.accessone.com>, rivero at accessone.com (Michael
Rivero) wrote:


>   Part of the confusion over strains is that the Ebola virus particle, despite
> it's extreme simplicity (a single threadlike strand of DNA with a coat of 
> only 7 different proteins) shows a high rate of mutation, often an 
> indicator of a very new organism.
> 



More confusion is brought about, if you say  that Ebola is a DNA virus. It
is obviously not. Read the following quotation:

*Ebola and Marburg Virus Genomic Structure, Comparative and Molecular
Biology Provided by John Crowley (B.S.) and Ted Crusberg (Ph.D.)
crusberg at wpi.edu. Dept. of Biology & Biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic
Institue, Worcester MA 01609 

Ebola is a member of the negative-stranded RNA virus family Filoviridae.*

The same is quoted in any virology textbook. As for the high rate of
mutation, Ebola does not seem to have an higher rate than any other RNA
virus. I can give you more info on the MolBio of Ebola, anyway or you can
contact the address above.
G.Maga.