The Seventh John Innes Symposium was held at the John Innes Institute from 2-5 September, 1986. The title 'Virus Replication and Genome Interactions' was deliberately intended to be flexible in interpretation. We chose nucleic acid replication as the main theme since its analysis has proceeded far enough in both viruses and their prokaryotic or eukaryotic hosts, to allow comparisons to be made and molecular interactions including enzymic processes, regulatory sequences and integration to be investigated. Shared or analogous mechanisms, sequence exchange or integration, are phenomena which encouraged us to include 'virus-like entities', viroids, virusoids, transposable elements and evolutionary aspects in the programme.
The programme therefore focussed not only directly on viruses, but also on host DNA, plasmids and movable elements, interactions during virus infection and the possible origins and evolution of viruses. It was most appropriate that the meeting should begin with the thirteenth Bateson Lecture on 'DNA replication' presented...
