Introduction
    1. Obligate Parasites of Cells
        The Virosphere and Its Metagenome
        Complexity and “Dark Matter”
        Selfish Information and the Essence of Being Viral
        The Emergence of Egotistical Replicators
        The Viral Empire
    2. Viruses, Genes, and Ecosystems
        Lifestyles and Life Cycles
        Lysogeny: Exercising Temperance
        Kill the Winner
        Gene Brokers
        Selfishness Driving Adaptive Evolution
        Phages and the Microbiome
        Unfriendly Competition
        Chemical Warfare
    3. Potentiation of Bacterial Diseases by Phages
        For a Charm of Powerful Trouble
        Toxic Enablers
        Choose Your Poison
        Treasure Islands
        Prophage Induction and Antibiotic Drug Resistance
    4. Viruses and Higher Organisms
        Viruses, Cells, Organisms, and Populations
        “Just a Virus”
        Human Rhinoviruses
        Uncommon Diversity
        Accidents of Pathogenesis
        Mutation, Diversity, and Quasipecies
    5. The Flu: No Common Cold
        Antigenic Escape Artists
        Human Influenza A Virus
        Epidemic Influenza: Dress for the Season
        Quasispecies, Sequence Clusters, and Codon Bias
        Correlating Genetic and Antigenic Evolution
        Seeding of Seasonal Epidemics
        Pandemic Influenza: The Emperor with No Clothes
    6. Alternative Virus Lifestyles
        Latency: Till Death Do Us Part
        All in the Family Herpesviridae
    7. Evolutionary Mechanisms of DNA Viruses
        Gene Duplication and Gene Capture
        Poxvirus Evolution
        Poxvirus Party Tricks
        Small DNA Virus Evolution
    8. Viroids and Megaviruses: Extremes
        Viroids: The Smallest
        Evolutionary Reliquary
        Megaviruses: The Biggest
        Big and Bigger
        Virophages: Fleas upon Fleas
        Chimerism
        Megavirus Origins: Mavericks at Heart
    9. HIV-1: A Very Modern Pandemic
        A New Disease and a New Virus
        Anatomy of HIV-1
        HIV in the Making
        Socioepidemiology of AIDS: A Man-Made Epidemic
        Within-Host Evolution: A Very Personal Arms Race
        Shortsighted Evolution
        Adaptive Evolution: An Evolving Relationship
        Outrunning the Red Queen
        Medicine at the Virus–Host Interface
        Resistance Is Futile
    10. Cross-Species Infections: Means and Opportunity
        A Rogue’s Gallery of Emerging Viruses
        Adaptive Evolution in Zoonosis
        Fitness Landscape
        A Shifting Fitness Landscape
        The Paradox in RNA Virus Evolution
        RNA Viruses and Molecular Clocks
        Arboviruses: Vector-Borne Viruses
        Evolutionary Compromise
        Host Restriction
    11. Future Pandemic Influenza
        Real and Present Danger
        Pandemic Threat Level
        The Pandemic Phenotype
        Outbreak
    12. Ebolavirus
        EBOV Makona
        What We Were Afraid to Say about Ebola
        Evolution or Adaptive Change
        EBOV Persistence
    13. Viral Zoonoses and Animal Reservoirs
        The Usual Suspects
        Filovirus Origins
        Bats and Viral Zoonoses
        A Special Relationship
        Tolerance and Resistance
    14. Endogenous Retroviruses: Our Viral Heritage
        Genome Invasion by Retroviruses
        Endogenization in Progress
        Change Agents
        Domestication of ERV Genes
        Endogenous Viral Elements
    15. Viruses as Human Tools
        Myxoma Virus: Biological Control
        Genomics of an Attenuated Poxvirus
        Orthopoxviruses: Past Solutions and Future Problems
        Live-Attenuated Viruses
        Attenuation by Design
        Virus Therapeutics
        Doctor’s Little Helpers
        Oncolytic Viruses
    16. Conclusion: Humanity and Viruses
        The Human Future and Viruses
        Beauty in Design
    References
    Acknowledgments
    Index

Michael G. Cordingley is President and Founder of Revolution Pharma Consulting and Senior Scientific Advisor at Antiva Biosciences.