Adenoviruses were first discovered in 1953, by Rowe and his colleagues. These viruses were first isolated from Adenoid cell culture, hence the family name of Adenoviridae. At present, 51 distinct serotypes have been recognized and recorded.

In 1962, Trentin and colleagues made the important discovery that adenovirus 12 could induce tumors in hamsters in a laboratory setting. Since this discovery, adenoviruses have been suspected in inducing human cancers but have not been proven to definitively cause cancer in humans.

Experiments involving adenoviruses have also made important contributions to molecular biology. Most importantly, adenoviruses have helped scientist to understand messenger RNA splicing. By studying the mRNA produced by adenoviruses, scientists have realized that there were introns imbedded into these transcripts.

It's Hot Hot Hot! New Discoveries about the Evolution of Adenoviruses

New studies that examined the genetic content, protease and small subunit of rRNA have shown the adenoviruses co-speciate with their hosts. There are four known genera of adenoviruses, these include the mastadenoviruses, aviadenoviruses, atadenoviruses, and siadnoviruses. For instance, mastadenoviruses can only infect mammalian hosts and aviadenoviruses can only infect bird hosts. The other two genera, atadenovirus and siadenoviruses, do not have as clear cut distinction about the types of hosts they can infect. Studies of atadenovirus have proven that they can infect poultry, ruminants, and marsupials; however, scientists now believe that this virus has a reptilian source. While modern siadenoviruses infect birds, they are believed to have originated in amphibians. Finally, the recent discovery of the partial sequence of a fish adenovirus reinforces the hypothesis that adenoviruses have evolved to infect distinct vertebrate lineages.