Both well‐known and emerging viruses increasingly affect humans and cause disease, sometimes with devastating impact on society. The viruses present in the biosphere are the top predators in the life chain, virtually without enemies, except perhaps the immune system, and harsh environmental physicochemical conditions restricting their dissemination. We know a lot about viruses, but do we know enough? This series of reviews is dedicated to adenoviruses (AdVs), a family of nonenveloped DNA viruses occurring in vertebrates, including humans. AdVs have been the focus of intense research for more than 67 years. Besides causing disease, they have immensely contributed to the advance of life sciences and medicine over the past decades. Recently, AdVs have been widely used as vehicles in gene therapy and vaccination. They continue to provide fundamental insights into virus–host interactions in cells, tissues and organisms, as well as systems and metabolic networks. This special issue of FEBS Letters presents a unique collection of 23 state‐of‐the‐art review articles by leading adenovirologists.

Read this enticing Editorial by Urs Greber and have a look at the full Special Issue on Adenoviruses: Biology, Disease and Therapy to find out all there is to know about Adenoviruses.

Editorial

Greber, U.F. (2020), Adenoviruses – Infection, pathogenesis and therapy. FEBS Lett, 594: 1818-1827. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13849

Reviews

Nemerow, G. and Flint, J. (2019), Lessons learned from adenovirus (1970–2019). FEBS Lett, 593: 3395-3418. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13700

Excoffon, K.J.D.A. (2020), The coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor: virological and biological beauty. FEBS Lett, 594: 1828-1837. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13794

Scherer, J., Yi, J. and Vallee, R.B. (2020), Role of cytoplasmic dynein and kinesins in adenovirus transport. FEBS Lett, 594: 1838-1847. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13777

Pied, N. and Wodrich, H. (2019), Imaging the adenovirus infection cycle. FEBS Lett, 593: 3419-3448. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13690

Zhao, H., Punga, T. and Pettersson, U. (2020), Adenovirus in the omics era – a multipronged strategy. FEBS Lett, 594: 1879-1890. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13710

Georgi, F. and Greber, U.F. (2020), The Adenovirus Death Protein – a small membrane protein controls cell lysis and disease. FEBS Lett, 594: 1861-1878. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13848

Allen, R.J. and Byrnes, A.P. (2019), Interaction of adenovirus with antibodies, complement, and coagulation factors. FEBS Lett, 593: 3449-3460. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13649

Atasheva, S., Yao, J. and Shayakhmetov, D.M. (2019), Innate immunity to adenovirus: lessons from mice. FEBS Lett, 593: 3461-3483. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13696

Sohn, S.‐Y. and Hearing, P. (2019), Adenoviral strategies to overcome innate cellular responses to infection. FEBS Lett, 593: 3484-3495. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13680

Oliveira, E.R.A. and Bouvier, M. (2019), Immune evasion by adenoviruses: a window into host–virus adaptation. FEBS Lett, 593: 3496-3503. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13682

Hidalgo, P., Ip, W.H., Dobner, T. and Gonzalez, R.A. (2019), The biology of the adenovirus E1B 55K protein. FEBS Lett, 593: 3504-3517. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13694

Hidalgo, P. and Gonzalez, R.A. (2019), Formation of adenovirus DNA replication compartments. FEBS Lett, 593: 3518-3530. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13672

Charman, M., Herrmann, C. and Weitzman, M.D. (2019), Viral and cellular interactions during adenovirus DNA replication. FEBS Lett, 593: 3531-3550. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13695

Lynch, K.L., Gooding, L.R., Garnett‐Benson, C., Ornelles, D.A. and Avgousti, D.C. (2019), Epigenetics and the dynamics of chromatin during adenovirus infections. FEBS Lett, 593: 3551-3570. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13697

Lion, T. (2019), Adenovirus persistence, reactivation, and clinical management. FEBS Lett, 593: 3571-3582. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13576

Ismail, A.M., Zhou, X., Dyer, D.W., Seto, D., Rajaiya, J. and Chodosh, J. (2019), Genomic foundations of evolution and ocular pathogenesis in human adenovirus species D. FEBS Lett, 593: 3583-3608. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13693

Ip, W.H. and Dobner, T. (2020), Cell transformation by the adenovirus oncogenes E1 and E4. FEBS Lett, 594: 1848-1860. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13717

Kleinberger, T. (2020), Biology of the adenovirus E4orf4 protein: from virus infection to cancer cell death. FEBS Lett, 594: 1891-1917. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13704

Barry, M.A., Rubin, J.D. and Lu, S.‐C. (2020), Retargeting adenoviruses for therapeutic applications and vaccines. FEBS Lett, 594: 1918-1946. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13731

Gao, J., Mese, K., Bunz, O. and Ehrhardt, A. (2019), State‐of‐the‐art human adenovirus vectorology for therapeutic approaches. FEBS Lett, 593: 3609-3622. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13691

Li, C. and Lieber, A. (2019), Adenovirus vectors in hematopoietic stem cell genome editing. FEBS Lett, 593: 3623-3648. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13668

Hemmi, S. and Spindler, K.R. (2019), Murine adenoviruses: tools for studying adenovirus pathogenesis in a natural host. FEBS Lett, 593: 3649-3659. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13699

Harrach, B., Tarján, Z.L. and Benkő, M. (2019), Adenoviruses across the animal kingdom: a walk in the zoo. FEBS Lett, 593: 3660-3673. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.13687