This proposal requests funds to enable U.S. scientists, particularly young investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and students to attend the Second International Positive Strand RNA virus Symposium in Vienna, Austria, June 25-30, 1989. Symposium Co-organizers are Dr. M. Brinton, Wistar Institute, Dr. R. Rueckert, University of Wisconsin, and Dr. F. Heinz, Dr. C. Kunz, and Dr. E. Kuechler, University of Vienna. Session topics will be: Viral Evolution; Viral Receptors; Genome Replication; Gene Expression; Protein Translation, Cleavage and Modification; Virion Structure and Assembly; Virion Antigenic Structure; Pathogenesis and Virulence; and Strategies for Control of Virus Diseases. Participants will include animal, plant, insect, and bacterial virologists studying the molecular biology, crystallography, cell biology, pathogenesis, immunology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and prevention of positive-strand RNA viruses. Positive-strand RNA viruses are those whose genomes function as an mRNA. At least seven families of animal viruses, almost all plant viruses, one family of insect viruses and one family of bacteriophages are of this type. Diseases caused by these viruses are of medical, agricultural, and economic significance. Human pathology resulting from positive-strand RNA virus infections includes encephalitis, poliomyelitis, heart disease, hepatitis, the common cold, gastroenteritis, hemorrhagic fever, and birth defects. Positive-strand virus infections are often fatal in patients immunosuppressed because of cancer, transplantation, or AIDS. The first International Positive-Strand RNA Virus Symposium has held under the auspices of the UCLA Symposium on molecular and cellular Biology in Keystone, Colorado in 1986 with approximately 200 participants. This symposium has fostered by the explosion of new information resulting from the application of molecular biological and x-ray crystallographic technology to the analyses of positive-strand RNA viruses. These data indicated previously unsuspected nucleic acid, amino acid, and structural homologies among plant, animal, and insect positive-strand RNA viruses. The 1986 symposium was extremely successful in achieving its goal of promoting discourse and scientific interactions between animal, plant, and insect virus researchers. The participants unanimously agreed to hold an International Positive-Strand RNA Virus Symposium every three years. Because of the broad-based international attendance of this symposium, the conference site will alternate between Europe and the U.S.
