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This scanning electron microscope image shows newly formed Friend virus particles (upper right in light blue) budding from an infected white blood cell known as a T-lympocyte. The virus was used in a University of Utah study that suggests how increasing genetic diversity in livestock and in captive-bred endangered species may help protect them from infection.
In the past, research on plants and insects has shown that a virus replicates faster and becomes more virulent when it rapidly adapts to the "host" it infects because the host species has low genetic diversity. However, such findings have not been shown in vertebrate species, although it has been theoretically predicted for over two decades, until now.Image credit: Elizabeth Fischer and Austin Athman, NIAID, NIH
