2012-13 Faculty Lecture Series

A continuous War… since life first appeared on earth. In Every infection a human being develops is a frenetic race for existence between the microbial invaders, and the host being invaded. This molecular warfare is a desperate struggle for existence, and is more vicious and ferocious than humankind could ever imagine. And, this war has been going on continuously since life first appeared on earth. Over half of the entire human genome consists of DNA sequences that once belonged to viral invaders. This fact dramatically illustrates the incessant onslaught humans have faced throughout their evolutionary history by viral invaders. Join Dr. Bergey as he discusses how pathogens and their hosts have continually adapted and co-evolved with each other throughout the history of life on earth, the co-evolution of retroviruses with humans, and the role of retroviruses in human genome.